out of my mind (bring me home)
by blacksatinpointeshoes
Summary: The mission was routine. The enemies were unexpected. Not HYDRA or the Watchdogs but a group of scientists, each with a claim to the Darkhold. Some of them have read it. Some of them are dying to. But either way, there is little they won't do to Robbie Reyes in order to get it back. [Originally posted on AO3.]
1. Daisy I

"Coulson, what's the rush?" Daisy is standing in the doorway of her bedroom on the Zephyr, her hair wild and her eyes sleepy. "Some people are trying to sleep, you know."

Coulson, who is already dressed in a suit (how does he do that?!) raises a sceptical eyebrow in Daisy's direction. "We touch down today," he reminds her pointedly. " _Everyone_ helps out."

Daisy groans and runs a hand through her tangled hair. Clean-up day on the Zephyr is a legendary affair, lasting from breakfast until the moment the plane reaches the ground. It usually involves moving very heavy boxes and forcing Fitz and YoYo to squeeze into small corners to dust while everyone tries to do as little work as possible. "We'll be out in a minute."

"Don't bother," says Coulson, a smile touching his lips. "Everyone else is in pyjamas. Come on."

"They're out already?!" Daisy exclaims, huffing when Coulson nods. "What time is it?"

"Eleven. We've already had breakfast."

Daisy heaves another long, dramatic sigh and pokes her head into the room. "Robbie? We need to go. Clean-up."

A muffled voice comes from inside. "What, already?"

"I'm having déjà vu," Daisy quips, and motions for him to come out. "Come on, I'll explain on the way." She pauses, then asks plaintively, "Coulson, is there any breakfast left for us?"

"I'll see if there's something I can rustle up," says the director with his signature smile, that pin-straight mouth and twinkling eyes. Daisy makes a face.

"You sound like you're seventy," she tells him seriously as Robbie joins them at the door. He wordlessly hands her a hair tie and she kisses his cheek. "Morning, babe."

Robbie and Coulson exchange fond looks of amusement at Daisy's antics as she sweeps her hair into a low bun at the nape of her neck. "Are we ready?" asks Robbie. "I'd prefer not to get stuck with Fitzsimmons again."

The trio begins their trek through the Zephyr's living quarters and towards the common room. "What's wrong with Fitzsimmons?" asks Coulson. "They're usually quite efficient."

Robbie rolls his eyes fleetingly, more incredulous than annoyed. "Jemma asked me if it hurts when my neck catches on fire." Daisy stifles a laugh and Robbie throws his hands up helplessly. "I mean, what was I supposed to say?"

"That doesn't sound too bad," says Daisy, her lips twitching into a smile as she tries to keep a neutral face.

"That was just the beginning," Robbie complains with no malice. "She wants to _purposefully_ bring out the Rider in order to study the marks on the skull. I didn't even know there _were_ marks."

Daisy is aggressively fighting back her giggles as Coulson says, "There are marks, actually. You should find a mirror when you have the time."

"It sounds kind of dangerous to bring out the Rider on purpose," Daisy comments when she can manage it, though that sounds _exactly_ like Jemma.

"Yeah, Fitz is still angry I broke his containment module," Robbie replies flatly, and Daisy bursts into hysterics. "And I'm not sure how Simmons is going to get past the fact that the Rider is _constantly_ angry and also, on fire."

Daisy is fighting for breath at this point, though she manages, "You could ask nicely?"

"Pretty sure that's not going to work," grumbles Robbie, and then they enter the common room.

"Look who decided to show up!" YoYo calls teasingly, spreading her arms. "Any reason you were late, lovebirds?"

"YoYo!" Daisy scolds, laughing all the same.

"What?" asks the inhuman speedster with a devilish glint in her eye. "It is the reason we were late, right Mack?"

 _"YoYo."_ Mack is also fighting a smile that wins out in mere seconds as he wraps his arms around her and kisses the top of her forehead. YoYo grins.

"Nice pyjamas, Elena," says Robbie as he takes a seat on the couch, nodding towards her oversized AC/DC tee that probably didn't belong to her until this morning. YoYo and Robbie get along so well it's scary sometimes.

"You too," she replies. Robbie is wearing flannel pyjama pants and a cotton tee shirt that looks suspiciously similar to the one Daisy has on (mostly because Robbie has about five of them). "Very classy."

Now that the talk has turned to pyjamas, Simmons is blushing wildly and folding her arms over her middle, a motion that in no way escapes Daisy. "Oh my God." Daisy points to the reddening scientist with unrestrained glee. "Is that the shirt I got you for Christmas last year?"

"It's comfortable!" Simmons protests, covering her face with her hands and letting a glimpse of her tee – a pale pink thing with a chemistry related dick joke on the front – slip through. "Stop looking at me like that! Coulson, I told you I needed to change!"

"Also, I think it's funny," says Fitz in appreciation as he and Daisy swap a grin.

"Side note, where's May?" Daisy asks, glancing towards Coulson, who has been observing the action from the edge of the room. As though the words have summoned her, in walks the agent herself, dressed in full tactical gear and holding a cup of coffee.

"May has already finished her cleaning day assignment," she says smugly, prompting loud groans from the entire group. "Because _I_ don't sleep until noon, you heathens."

"Ugh," says Fitz, sighing, _"cleaning day,_ don't remind me."

"Did you really think we were getting out of that?" Robbie asks from next to Daisy, and Fitz (maturely) makes a face in the other man's direction.

Coulson clears his throat to get the team's attention and pulls up a document on his phone. "Everyone knows the drill; first to finish gets the prize, and no, May isn't part of this competition and yes, I already got her something better." There's a heavy pause as Coulson realises exactly what he said and his face turns red up to his ears. "You know what – I'll just read off the teams."

Daisy and Robbie are paired up with YoYo and Mack, an excitable group that makes everyone around a little nervous. They're tasked with the left wing – the personal wing, known on clean-up day as the Personal Vendetta wing. Anything left in the open, from condoms to your internet history, _will_ indeed be found by the cleaning crew made up of immature agents. (Piper still hasn't recovered from the time Nathanson caught her Google search of "how to make your hot, intimidating commanding officer like you" and will vehemently deny it any time someone brings it up.)

Fitzsimmons, supervised by May, is put in control of cleaning up the labs. Jemma hates the in-flight science wing because "it's too cramped for proper experimentation, _Fitz,_ I can't even _stand_ to look at that mess of papers you have" but her cleaning is quick and completely immaculate.

The rest of the agents on the Zephyr are divvied up and the pyjama clad spies all grumble their way to their cleaning posts, prepared for an hour and a half of misery and trying to read labels in Coulson's chicken-scratch handwriting. This is cleaning day, after all, and the plane isn't going to organise itself.

And then the unheard-of, prayed-for interruption wails through the Zephyr's speakers only a half hour in. An urgent distress call, code red, coming from a SHIELD affiliate of the highest priority is pinging out to any plane in the area, armed with coordinates. Nothing else would activate the alarms as such, and Daisy – who is elbows deep in someone else's laundry – has to hold back a cheer at the oncoming catastrophe.

She has never been so thrilled at the prospect of a mission. Never. The underwear strewn all over Davis D. Davis's floor has a pretty big hand in that excitement.

Coulson's voice crackles over the intercom, booming throughout the Zephyr. "I know that you're all excited, but this is a code red," he says, voice stern. "You need to be in the common room of the Zephyr in ten minutes, full tactical gear. May will provide weapons. We're touching down as soon as possible – ETA is about twenty minutes from now. I'll debrief you and then send out a team to assess the situation." There is a short pause before Coulson continues, "And yes, you _will_ continue cleaning when we get back. We are _adults."_

Then the PA clicks off and the Zephyr goes silent. The four agents exchange looks of poorly disguised elation. Robbie, the vigilante Ghost Rider himself, holding a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels, sighs with relief and says, "Oh, thank _God."_

* * *

The common room is filled with a jittery, excited energy when the agents reassemble, fiddling with straps on bulletproof vests and tying their shoes. Coulson and May survey the group like thirteen-year-old babysitters just put in charge of a squirming infant, exchanging glances that are part amusement and part fear. The agents' minds are still stuck on relief of getting out of cleaning, and have not quite transitioned to the seriousness of the mission.

Coulson clears his throat to gather the team's attention, clapping his hands together. "I've made contact with our allies on the ground," he says. "We're looking for a group of scientists who provided intel during the Darkhold crisis. It seems like a fanatic cult obsessed with the book has launched a series of attacks, and at least three are dead."

The air changes quickly, somber with all the intensity of a bucket of ice water. Coulson continues, "Daisy, we'll need you on the ground first to check if there are any other land mines. YoYo on recon. Mack, May, you'll be back up. And Robbie…" The director's voice falters and suddenly they are all remembering Robbie and the Darkhold and Hell. But Coulson has to make the hard call. "You're out first, too. Even if your knowledge of the book won't help, the Ghost Rider certainly will."

Robbie gives a curt nod and feels Daisy's hand slip into his as Coulson rambles on, giving assignments for the tech Fitzsimmons needs to bring and assembling the tactical team if they encounter any adversaries. When the Zephyr begins to tilt, Daisy stands, and the rest of the team follows suit.

It doesn't take long for the massive plane to reach the ground, and Daisy is the first onto the dirt terrain. She prepares to quake, then hesitates, reeling in response to the horrors in front of her. The scene is so gruesome she drops her arm in shock, stumbling a few steps backwards. Behind her, the rest of the team's reaction is the same.

There is a crater in front of a large, green barn and inside the hole is bodies. At least ten, fifteen, maybe more, are strewn throughout and aggressively dismembered. Daisy catches sight of a head with a gash across its face, shrapnel poking out of bulged eyes; when she turns her head away she notices the outstretched arm only inches away from her feet.

Daisy wants to throw up but instead takes a deep, shaking breath and sends a tremor through the ground. The bodies groan under the stress of it and blood spurts upwards in geysers from previously inactive bombs, signalling the mines' presence with dark red splatters.

"Okay," she says quietly, wishing that perhaps this was a normal cleaning day. "That should be it."

Daisy taps into her comms to contact Coulson, holding a finger to her ear and reporting, "It looks like there's been a massacre – at least fifteen dead. I'm not sure how many more. We're on our way in, but it would be helpful to have backup on standby." She nods to YoYo, who takes off and returns in the blink of an eye.

"Empty," YoYo says with no small degree of confusion, unruffled as ever after her brief excursion. "The bodies in the pit are the only people here."

Daisy frowns and May comes up on her shoulder, surveying the area with tired eyes. "Odd," she says. "There were multiple people alive when we received the call – maybe we should check the barn. It's possible some of our allies took cover before they were bombed."

Robbie, too, has emerged from the shadowy depths of the Zephyr's underbelly, his face twisted in disgust. "No," he cuts in, stepping out of the plane and kneeling by the arm Daisy had spotted earlier. "These aren't people. There's something wrong."

He puts a hand to his nose and flays open the skin of the arm with one gloved finger, prying until he hits what should be bone. "Look." Robbie beckons forward the rest of the group, revealing a complex set of wires and hardware beneath the android's exterior.

"LMDs," says May quietly, her voice hardening. "The rest of the dead must be androids too."

"But no one had that technology," Mack interrupts in alarm. "Aside from Radcliffe, and he was under SHIELD supervision the whole time."

"Radcliffe and AIDA," Daisy says mournfully. "Who knows where she implemented them."

May's face is stony with dread as she takes in the scene, this time with a whole new perspective. "These scientists," she says slowly, "they were old associates of Radcliffe. These were his stupid dreams for years – long before us, long before Hive. I _knew_ we should have kept a better eye on him, I –"

"Hey," says Mack sternly. "Don't beat yourself up. What's done is done. You were unconscious for most of this anyway."

"Don't remind me," says May with an eye roll, and then she is returned to them as the woman they have come to know and love.

"Then why the distress call?" YoYo asks, extending a hand to help Robbie to his feet. "Why call at all, if they're just LMDs?"

"It's a trap," May says firmly, and holsters her gun. Everyone else looks to her with a combination of shock and alarm. "Urgent distress call from old buddies of Holden Radcliffe turns out to be a bunch of robots. There's no way it's anything but."

"Which means we're going straight in," Mack sighs, readying his shotgun-axe. "The rest of you have weapons, right?"

Robbie flexes his hands and Daisy holds up her pistol; Mack hands Elena a gun from the wall and surveys the group. "Most probably they're in the barn. Daisy, break down the door. We'll see what sort of threat is in there."

"Got it." The Inhuman nods and looks to May for the signal. Robbie fixes his jacket, and then – well, they're off.

The field is wide open, exposed, and the crater in its centre means that the SHIELD agents have to stick to the outskirts. They move quickly, just shy of running, with a spy's paranoia and eyes watching each other's backs. YoYo zooms off to make sure no one is sieging the barn, but the area remains painfully empty.

"Clear," she says with finality. May nods.

"Go on in."

Daisy sends a blast of earthquake towards the door, and the old wood splinters inwards. It smells like musty hay and damp animals, and the space is completely empty. Light is slanting through planks of wood and scattering patterns all over the ground. The team stands in the open doorway with a sense of foreboding as they scan the interior of the barn, but there's only… nothing.

"Coulson," May reports on the comms, "the place is empty. We're going in, try to scope it out. I have my camera on."

Mack raises his weapon as they creep inwards, a shudder going down his spine. "This feels wrong," he mumbles, eyes darting to the exit. "This whole place… it feels wrong."

That's when Robbie stumbles, clapping a hand onto May's shoulder to keep from falling. "Woah," she says urgently, helping him to his feet and looking him in the eyes, providing the needed support. "Reyes, what's wrong?"

Robbie grunts and pulls himself away from her with some effort, inhaling sharply. "I know what this place is," he manages. "The energy. It's from the other place. It wants me back."

Daisy has squeezed up in between Robbie and May, eyes wide. "The other place – Hell? Robbie, what's going on?"

"You need to leave," Robbie says in a low voice, his lips pulling back into the Rider's snarl. _"Now."_

May drags Daisy – _literally_ drags her – towards the exit as the Ghost Rider explodes into being, stalking towards the walls with an outstretched hand. Robbie Reyes is gone.

"Go!" Daisy hears Mack yell, his body shielding YoYo as they run out into the open field. Suddenly, the pit of bodies is their better option. _"Go!"_

"Coulson," says May roughly as they reach the exit, "we have a bit of a situation."

The barn, filled with whatever quantum energy that had affected Robbie so, is consumed with flame. It laps at the mouldy wood and reeks as the smoke climbs higher, crackling with energy. Daisy's breath catches in her throat. For a moment she isn't sure if things can get worse.

Then the trees jump to life with a hundred – a thousand – identical people, armed and angry and… ignoring the SHIELD team altogether. Daisy gapes as the LMDs storm past her, stampeding into the barn as the whole thing begins to fall.

Robbie, shrouded in flame, rises from the ashes with fire in his hands. The army swarms him, wave after wave, and Daisy watches in horror as Robbie fights them off, hurling the androids into one another with deadly accuracy. "I have to help him –"

"Daisy, _no –_ "

A quake strong enough to knock down nearby trees doesn't faze Robbie or the LMDs; Daisy shoots blast after blast with only limited success. Moments later she hears the ringing of gunshots from Mack and May and YoYo behind her, though all their combined weapons barely make a dent in the indestructible force of robots.

Fear rises in her chest as she fights harder, faster, with more ferocity than before. _He has to make it out okay._ The thought is a rising plea. _He_ has _to._

Then one of the LMDs catches Robbie on the side of the head and he goes down, hard. Daisy screams something unintelligible and Mack grabs her arm to stop her from launching herself into the frenzy, a battle rising to fever pitch.

When Robbie resurfaces, he is slung over the shoulder of one of the androids, who are disappearing into the trees. _"No,"_ Daisy whispers in horror, struggling in Mack's grip. "No, no, _no – ROBBIE!"_

Her vision goes white and is replaced by a cockpit, another man just barely grown up gone too soon. Daisy's voice shatters as she screams his name over and over, begging him to respond, to get up, to _fight, please –_

The androids disappear as quickly as they came. Mack rubs Daisy's shoulders as she sobs into his side, shuddering, ugly, heaves, and something inside her splinters. The clearing is as empty and quiet as it ever was.

Melinda May puts her arms around Daisy and kisses the top of her head and promises in a quiet voice packed with emotion, "We'll get him back."


	2. Robbie I

He is jolted awake –

His eyes flutter open and search the dark desperately for anything familiar. He can't remember who or where he is. Fog clouds his brain –

His eyes snap open and scan the room, squinting against the dim lighting. He realises that he is inside a truck as the jostling of wheels throw him in and out of consciousness –

Robbie's eyes snap open and panic fills his chest as he takes in his surroundings for the fourth time. He is slumped in the corner of a mostly empty moving truck, though a few burlap bags are scattered throughout and sliding across the floor. There is no light and there are no windows. Robbie slams a hand against the wall and grunts, supporting himself as he tries to stand. His chest is heaving with the effort of it as his eyes narrow, head swinging like a predator turned prey.

The truck hits a bump in the road and he topples like a child's tower of bricks with the bottom layer removed. When Robbie struggles to his feet again, his palms are scraped and bloody. He feels like he's walking through molasses, thick and syrupy and unbalanced.

His hands.

Robbie was wearing his gloves. He remembers his gloves, where are they? Where _is_ he? His memory is splintered into fragments of a day where one minute doesn't seem to belong in the same century, much less the same span of five hours, as the next. He can recall Daisy. Cleaning. The mission. _The Rider. The LMDs._ Robbie fills in the blanks.

The truck bounces and sends Robbie's prison into turmoil as he stumbles and braces himself on the opposite wall. His thoughts are sent into similar disarray. He needs out – he needs to find Daisy and SHIELD; he needs to get back to the Zephyr. It is touchdown day, and Gabe must be waiting for him. After all that time away, Robbie was supposed to finally see his brother.

He chokes out a cry of rage and calls upon the Spirit of Vengeance, waiting for the familiar burn to sweep across his skin and knock his consciousness into the back seat. His hands begin to glow and his eyes are lidded with a blood-red sheen but the Ghost Rider himself is muted.

Robbie ignores the implications. He can't think of those right now.

He shakes his head to clear it, shutting his eyes and summoning the hellfire that runs through his veins. The Rider continues to fight him, but the feeling isn't an active pushback. The spirit is struggling too, trapped somewhere deep in Robbie's mind that even he can't access. It reminds him of being trapped between worlds, way back when, and Robbie can't even hear the Rider's damning growl urging him on.

The implications catch up to him.

Robbie realises that the pit in his stomach is the absence of the curse he's grown used to living with. For the first time since waking up alone in the dark, he is afraid.

The truck gurgles to a halt, tossing Robbie backwards as he scrambles to stay steady. There is nothing he can use to fight back except his hands, so all he can do is wait. Seconds stretch out like weeks, crawling past in atomic increments. All Robbie can hear is the sound of his own breath. Ragged. Steady.

The door at the opposite end of the metal prison creaks open and light floods in, revealing a rather scruffy looking man in a flannel shirt who looks absolutely _delighted_ to see Robbie standing there. "Oh, good," he says pleasantly, beaming. "You're awake."

Fury burns through his chest and spreads all the way into his fingertips. The sunlight funnels adrenaline into his veins and Robbie takes a running start, charging whoever the hell this is and landing a punch straight into the man's jaw.

Maybe he doesn't have the Ghost Rider, but he's still Robbie Reyes, and that's worth something.

The quantum energy buzzing around in the back of the truck slides off of Robbie's body in waves and the Rider is _angry,_ angrier than the spirit has been in a long time. Robbie's hands move but he isn't the one controlling them, only watching through someone else's eyes as the kidnapper looks up at him in fear.

"Backup! I need backup!" the man yells, scrambling around the side of the truck. Oddly, though, he doesn't seem as afraid as he should be. "I _told_ you we should have restrained him!"

The Rider stalks forward and grasps the man by his shirt collar, dangling his feet a few centimetres off the ground. Those baleful eyes turn and meet the kidnapper's wide ones with the full force of a penance stare, preparing

* * *

He is jolted awake –

His eyes flutter open and search the dark desperately for anything familiar. He can't remember who or where he is. Fog clouds his brain –

His eyes snap open and scan the room, squinting against the dim lighting. He realises that he is inside a truck as the jostling of wheels throw him in and out of consciousness –

Robbie moans in pain as he properly comes to, the noise low and raspy. The hellforce pounds rhythmically into his head, the interdimensional friction grating into his senses like a migraine. The energy sends the Rider spiralling into Robbie's subconscious and keeps it there. His sight is murky and dim. Robbie tries to stand.

Instantly he is yanked to the ground by a collection of chains he didn't notice were attached to his limbs. His arms and legs are all bound, the heavy metal clanking together as he strains against it and slumps back, exhausted. The Rider has healed the scrapes on Robbie's hands, but the shackles he is wearing now begin to scrape at his wrists.

His hands. _His hands._

Robbie remembers the initial shock of realising that these people had taken away his gloves and he takes a deep breath, preparing a mental inventory of what has changed. Now that he has time to focus, the unsettling feeling of _wrong_ begins to creep into the space between his bones. His jacket? Gone. Shoes? Gone too. He's wearing pants that are made out of stretchy fabric, not denim or tactical gear, and his shirt is black instead of grey. These people, whoever they are, have redressed him completely.

A headache begins to build behind Robbie's temples as the hellforce surges and his vision turns white with the effort of keeping himself conscious. He feels _sick_ , wishing and praying desperately that this nightmare will soon be over. His head is murky, muddled; his thoughts don't quite align. All Robbie knows is that he needs _out._

 _Think,_ he tells himself, forces himself. His captors know SHIELD. They know Robbie. They know the Rider and how to incapacitate it. They were associates of Holden Radcliffe, who just about lost his mind to go after the Darkhold – the _Darkhold._ Of course. This is what it's been about since the beginning.

Robbie knows the book is gone, buried so far in the depths of Hell even he can't find it. The Darkhold is being consumed by million-degree flame, burning in the embers that created the universe. These scientists, unbeknownst to them, are too late. There is no way for them to get the book.

Robbie has a sinking feeling that _he_ is going to pay for it.

There is another blast of the hellforce and Robbie's temperature drops ten degrees, his fingers beginning to stiffen in the cold. It prickles against his skin like needles, tiny spears ripping his body open. His head is fuzzy and stuffed with cotton, and a drum beats frantically in his ears. The noise roars like a furious dragon and

* * *

He is jolted awake –

His eyes flutter open and search the dark desperately for anything familiar. He can't remember who or where he is. Fog clouds his brain –

His eyes snap open and scan the room, squinting against the dim lighting. He realises that he is inside a truck as the jostling of wheels throw him in and out of consciousness –

Robbie's limbs are heavy when he stirs again, the fog still shoving its way through his mind and cramming itself there, thick and dull. The pain rises, swelling to the height of a wave at its crest and Robbie pitches forward, slamming down hard on his hands and knees as his back shudders with dry heaves – gagging, retching –

The energy is unbearable. It is _killing_ him; Robbie will not survive much longer, _please –_

He doesn't know when he started screaming but the truck – his prison – slowly grinds to a halt.

Someone – anyone – he is thrown out of the truck and oh god there is –

The sun – _finally –_ the cold lifts, mercifully – please, _please –_

He can breathe he can barely breathe –

Oh, the _air –_

Robbie's heartbeat is wild, out of control; he can barely make out the voices –

The voices are speaking in low tones –

A hand rises over Robbie's face and

* * *

He is jolted awake –

His eyes flutter open and search the dark desperately for anything familiar. He can't remember who or where he is. Fog clouds his brain –

His eyes snap open and scan the room, squinting against the dim lighting. He realises that he is inside a truck as the jostling of wheels throw him in and out of consciousness –

Deep breaths. Robbie is bound _and_ gagged this time, hands pinned behind his back and legs tucked away at odd angles. His wrists are raw and whenever he shifts, pain screams up his arms and shoots into his shoulders. His muscles are tight. He has no idea how long he's been out.

The truck still bounces along and Robbie leans his head forward as not to slam it against the side of the metal box. The hellforce is lessened now and the sacks of grain are all stacked around him, securing him in place. With the shackles affixed to his legs, he can't even manage to stand.

Robbie's breath catches in his throat. For the first time he's able to properly, lucidly, assess the situation. His mind is not overcome with fear or pain; he is clearheaded and has been in this place long enough to know he's not leaving anytime soon. The situation is worse than he ever could have feared, and dread settles in the pit of his stomach as Robbie puts together the pieces.

Robbie is alone. He has been captured by scientists who know enough about Holden Radcliffe's work to successfully reproduce an army of LMDs. They are most likely after the Darkhold, a book now burning in the pits of hell. The Ghost Rider is incapacitated. Robbie's energy is depleted, drained from his bones from the repeated exposure to the hellforce. He can't fight – and if he does, he certainly can't _win._

He is outnumbered, outplanned, and already beaten by the time he has an idea to fight back. These people are organised and angry. Robbie is counting on SHIELD to come for him, and he doesn't know if they will. He prays that Daisy might try.

He is afraid.

Something hot trickles down Robbie's neck and he forces a clumsy hand upwards to feel liquid running out of a cut in the base of his skull. His fingers are stained red with his own blood, an injury sustained from the beatings delivered by the LMD army and violent treatment by his captors. His hair is sticky, wet.

Robbie goes cold as he realises that he doesn't know how long he's been bleeding. He can't remember half of the ride. There are gaps in his head, filled with fog from the quantum energy, and Robbie is forced to confront the fact that even his own mind isn't a reliable source anymore. It's been corrupted, altered, with pieces deleted and mixed around.

He doesn't know what day it is. He doesn't know how long its been. All he knows now is the inside of this truck and a road trip that feels like forever.

Robbie doesn't want to die here. No, he _can't_ die here. He won't let it happen. Whatever the hell goes on in this place, Robbie promises himself he's going to stay alive.

It's a promise he's determined to keep.


	3. Daisy II

Daisy is quiet on the plane ride home. Too quiet. She is slumped into Mack's side, her face wet and tear streaked, her eyes downcast. She won't speak to Coulson or May or anyone, really, just walks into her room and closes the door. Stuffs her face into Robbie's sweatshirt and inhales the smell of him, alive and bright just this morning.

 _Alive._ Daisy's thoughts snag on the word, her breath catching in her throat. He has to be alive. She couldn't bear it if he –

No. That much she is certain. At least that she has to convince herself, so that being in this room surrounded by reminders of him doesn't feel like a shrine. A memorial. It would take more than an army to bring down Robbie Reyes.

Daisy realises she's gotten tears on the grey hoodie and shoves it away from her, taking with it the presence of _Robbie,_ the distinct _him_ -ness that accompanies with it. She sees the stains and sees it tainted with her grief.

Someone knocks on the door.

"Go away."

The knock comes again. "I said, go _away."_

The door opens. May is standing in the frame, her face impassive. "I told you we'll get him back," she says flatly, and though her tone is bland Daisy _knows_ that this is the older woman's method of comfort.

"And if we can't?" asks Daisy, hating the way her voice trembles.

May says, "Fitzsimmons were stranded at the bottom of the ocean. Jemma went to space. They made it through."

"And Lincoln sacrificed himself," snaps Daisy, razor sharp. "Fitzsimmons were supposed to be together. When they hooked up I was oh-for-two on boyfriends."

"Daisy."

"What?" says Daisy, almost sneering. "It's true. And while we're at it I've scored the same with parents; one was out of his mind and the other tried to take over the world. Cal doesn't even _recognise_ me anymore and you know what? He's better off because of it –"

"Daisy, stop."

"No, okay? I wasn't meant to deal with this much – this much _anything,_ okay, I know that you think I was being a coward when I left SHIELD but all I wanted was to prevent _this_ from happening again, because we're going to see Gabe when this thing touches down and I'm going to have to tell him that his brother is –"

"Stop it."

"May. There's nothing I –"

"No. Stop feeling sorry for yourself," says May, and there is such steel in her tone that Daisy pauses. The other agent steps into the room, sits down in Robbie's chair and lays her hands in her lap. "You're not the only one who lost something with SHIELD. You're not even the only one who lost something _today._ You think that Robbie isn't our friend, too? That we don't care about what happens to him?"

Daisy sighs. "That wasn't what I –"

"No, it's not. But it's what you _said,"_ May continues firmly. "You can't get anywhere if you sit in your room and cry. It's not going to work. We can exchange sob stories if you want – you know Bahrain. You know what happened with Andrew. You were there."

Daisy's face crumples and she glares up at May through reddened eyes. "Don't use Andrew against me."

"I'm not."

"You are, May, and we both know it; he was _my_ loss too –" and suddenly their positions have been switched; Daisy realises it as clearly as May. She falters, her words tapering off into nothing, and drops her head. "That was different."

May leans forwards, her stance as ready and strong as going directly into a fight. "How?"

"You had _time,"_ says Daisy. "You've had so much time."

"I didn't," May says, voice quiet. "Not then. It was the thick of battle against Hive. I'd just lost him to Lash. Then I lost Lash too. It was different because I had no chance of bringing him home."

"You think he's alive?" Daisy asks, raising her head. "Robbie? You think he's out there?"

"I can't say for certain," says May. "But I do know that your boy is pretty damn hard to kill. If anyone can make it, it's him. He's been through hell and back without a scratch."

Daisy takes a deep breath, looking into May's eyes for the first time. "I want to believe in what you're saying, May. I want to."

"But you're afraid," May finishes, nodding. "I know. It's human."

"I just don't want today to be _it,"_ says Daisy, her voice cracking. "I just – I can't hold out hope if there's none to have. I want him to be alive, May. I – I _need_ him to be alive – for me, for Gabe, for the life that he deserves to have after what the world has put him through – but I don't _know._ I can't know."

"When he was in that other place," May says softly. "You didn't give up on him then.

"Gabe was there," Daisy counters steadily. "He was breaking down. And there was this _feeling_ I had, because they were there. They were in the _room,_ May, they told us when they came home. Now I don't know where he is. I don't know where those LMDs could have taken him."

"But they took him for a reason," says May. "Whatever it is, they wanted _him._ No one would go through that much trouble if they just wanted to kill him. Those androids – they weren't firing lethal shots."

"The Darkhold," whispers Daisy, horror dawning on her face. "Radcliffe's associates – they must want the Darkhold."

The room, for a moment, is quiet. "They think he knows how to find it," May ventures, and Daisy nods. "But it's –"

"In hell," says Daisy. "Yeah." Another beat of silence, a bit longer. "When they figure that out, there won't be mercy. We saw Lucy Bauer and Eli – they'd lost their minds. All they wanted was that book."

"We don't have much time," says May. "We'll need to find him – and fast. Get to him before they figure out the book is gone."

Daisy puts her hands in her head again, back heaving with a long sigh. For once she looks towards the older woman for guidance, vulnerability flashing in her eyes. "Where do we start?"

* * *

Daisy has been working as though her life depends on it for the last hour and a half, slamming down keys on her laptop with a fury beyond what the rest of the team has ever seen. Robbie's tracker isn't deactivated but jammed, static filling her feed and providing locations radiating out from the epicentre of the attack. It's useless. All Daisy can tell is that he's been transported over a hundred kilometres since the morning in the barn.

His phone, too, is similarly useless. She tried to call it to no avail, and the device's limited tracking technology gave way only fifty kilometres in. Daisy has to assume that it's broken.

 _Think like them. Think what they think._ Daisy's fingers slide off the keyboard and she takes a deep breath, recuperating. Calculating. The army of LMDs – the LMDs! They're just programming, and programming can be corrupted.

Programming is also electronic – those things are just massive walking computers, and they came in an army. There's no way that the scientists, whoever they were, could get away with it so easily.

"Fitz!" Daisy calls. "Fitz, I need you to track traffic patterns on any and all highways near the site of the attack. Any surveillance from around twelve thirty to now, shouldn't be more than a hundred miles either way."

Fitz doesn't ask why, only makes a noise of agreement and shifts his attention from his book to one of the Zephyr's many computers. Daisy's heart swells with gratitude as she tries again, and keeps typing.

It's damn near impossible to have enough money to ferry around LMDs inconspicuously. Daisy is betting on a series of massive trucks with trailers on the end, large enough to stack the androids like the objects that they are. There has to be some sign of them. Dear god, let there be _some_ proof.

Fitz says, "Daisy, I've got nothing."

"Nothing?" Daisy repeats in shock, her eyes snapping over to his. "What do you mean, _nothing?"_

"I mean," Fitz says, angling his computer towards her, "Nothing. I've searched all the highways for anything with electronics like an LMD and there's no match. No trucks, only one trailer. The only larger vehicles have no electronic signature at all."

Daisy's breath catches in her throat. "Let me check. Maybe you're doing it wrong."

"Daisy, I've run all the scans that I can. There's nothing left to check," says Fitz wearily. "I'm sorry. But we can still –"

"I have to check," Daisy whispers. "I have to _see_ it, maybe there's something I can –"

"Hey." Fitz's voice is steady, firm. "Hey, I know how you're feeling, alright? I felt that way when I was looking for Jemma. I had too many 'almost's. But I got her back. I just had to keep working and I _got her back,_ okay, and you can't give up now, Daisy. I'll help you. May can help you. We'll find him. I promise."

Daisy's vision has gone blurry again and she blinks away the tears, nodding. It's far too soon to lose hope. She can keep fighting – for herself, and for Robbie, and for Gabe. She has to at least _try._

The sound of May's footsteps stop at the door as the older agent walks in, hovering in the doorway. "Anything?" she asks, and Daisy shakes her head. May's face steels and she sighs, sitting down next to Daisy. "I'm sorry. But you're going to need to put on a brave face now, because we're landing. Gabe hasn't been informed of what happened."

"Oh my God," says Daisy, burying her face in her hands. "No, I can't do this – I _can't,_ May, not now –"

"You have to," May says firmly, tilting up Daisy's chin. "You need him as much as he needs you."

"I can't let him down," Daisy mumbles, averting her eyes. "Not again. All I've ever been to him is the bringer of bad news."

"Daisy," says May, her voice gentle, "he loves you."

And it's true. After Robbie had gone to hell, Daisy had taken it upon herself to do everything she could for the younger Reyes brother. Helping him with homework, making sure he got to school on time, giving him a place to stay at the compound. Making Gabe feel _wanted._ Loved. There wasn't anything Daisy wouldn't do for that kid. The two of them, over time, had become inseparable. Gabe knew that no matter what he did, Daisy wasn't going anywhere.

"I don't know," Daisy admits, her words barely more than a whisper. "I don't know, May, I don't think I can take it if I lose him too."

"You won't," May says, reassuring and kind. "It's not you that he'd be angry at, Daisy. It's not your fault. Gabe will understand. He always does."

Daisy nods once, slowly. "And if we can't find Robbie?"

"Fitz made you a promise," May says, her voice steely. "And so did I. Robbie isn't just a human, Daisy – he's the Ghost Rider. After everything he's been through, he won't go down that easily. Not by an LMD. Not by AIDA or even by hell itself. You're going to get back to him, Daisy. We're going to bring him home."

For the second time that day, Daisy leans into May's shoulder and tries not to let the tears fall. "Okay," she says, wanting desperately to believe it. "We can try something else later. We can keep tracking him."

 _"_ _Yes,"_ May encourages. "Yes, we will. We'll look for him."

"And I can tell Gabe. I _can."_ May rubs Daisy's back as the younger agent speaks, mostly to herself. "We can get satellite surveillance on the backroads. We can find out what they're using to block the electronic signal. We can find the epicentre of all the readings on the tracker and find out what direction they're going in."

Daisy sniffles but raises her head, fire returning to her eyes. "We _will_ do this," she says, returning May's tentative confidence. "It's just not going to be easy."


	4. Robbie II

Someone yanks a bag off of Robbie's head. He didn't realise there was a bag on his head before they did, but as he blinks into consciousness the fact becomes abundantly clear. Robbie is sitting on the floor of an unknown room; around him, the walls are made of glass. Whoever roused him is standing nearby, watching Robbie like a lion tamer.

"You gave us quite a scare back there," says the woman, fixing her glasses, and Robbie's head snaps up. Instantly he feels the disorientation of hellforce wash over him and he struggles to stand, the motion sapping too much of his energy.

"What have you done to me?" he growls in response, ignoring her kindly façade. "What is this place?"

The woman's giggle is meant to be pleasant but comes out shrill. Robbie is scaring her. She is slight, blonde – pretty, if he gave a damn – and reminds him a bit of what Lucy Bauer might have looked like before she turned into a transdimensional ghost. He sees that her hands are shaking and almost feels bad. Then he wonders what the hell _she_ has to be afraid of, considering _she's_ the one who kidnapped _him._

"We're not here to hurt you," says the Lucy-clone, smiling and wringing her hands together. "We just have a couple questions. You have something that we want."

"Yeah, and who the hell is _'we'?"_ asks Robbie, ignoring the buzz in the back of his skull. He is afraid, and fear turns his voice hard to keep it from shaking. "I don't give if you don't talk."

"Oh," says the woman with sugary sweetness. "That's not how it works, Roberto. You're not in a position to negotiate. My team is going to tell you what we want, and you're going to give it to us. Understood?"

So there's a team, then. Robbie files away the information for later. "The Darkhold," he says, and sees her eyes widen with shock and hunger. "You want that damn book, don't you? All of you want the book."

"A few of my – associates – have worked with the technology, yes," says the woman, flushing as Robbie walks closer still. "We traced it down to a SHIELD facility and were aware that it was being used by a woman named Aida. But your people killed her."

"AIDA was trying to take over the world," Robbie corrects, a chill going down his spine at how thorough these people's sources are. Who knows what else they have on him – what they could do to him – if they know where to find _Gabe –_

He stops himself, takes a deep breath. _In for five, hold for three, out for eight._ The reminder comes to him in Daisy's voice, talking him out of nightmares.

He has to focus on the matter at hand. He has to stay alert. He has to stay alive. "She was an artificial creature turned human with matter from another dimension. She needed to be stopped, and so do you."

"She was Holden's assistant," says the blonde woman, batting her eyelashes. "Aida was as human as any of us."

Robbie pauses. "Who the hell is Holden?"

The woman huffs out a breath and rolls her eyes as though Robbie is stupid, and he can see the judgement in her eyes. _Ignorant boy, dense boy._ He takes a step backwards.

"Holden Radcliffe," she tells him flatly. "Between him and your uncle, we had enough energy to harness the power of that other world and help it bring you here."

Robbie's eyes turn dark, dangerous even without the Rider inside him. "You're using energy from the other place?" he asks, masking the panic with something close to a growl. "Did AIDA teach you _nothing?"_

 _AIDA._ His voice snags on the word and his breath hitches; Robbie hates the name and everything it reminds him of. The book. Hell. _Maia._ He can feel the spike of adrenaline race through his hands, launching him into fight or flight.

 _In for five. Hold for three. Out for eight._ He can't afford to have a panic attack. Not now.

The woman has skirted back at his words, eyes downcast as though remembering someone else's reprimands. Then she looks him straight in the face and her voice goes cold. "Damn right we are," she says, icy and sharp. "The tear in that place makes energy seep into our world like a river. All we need to do is control it. The Darkhold will tell us how to use it, but until then, we have enough stored up to use for years."

Robbie's eyes catch on a small flesh-colored earpiece. The conversation is being recorded. "You won't get the book," he says, and the small woman steps forward and slaps him across the face.

He recoils and steps back, almost stumbling in surprise. Until then Robbie was naïve enough to assume these people, whoever they were, wouldn't hurt him more than they needed to. The smack of a hand on his cheek quells whatever hope he had left. _The goal here is just to stay alive,_ he reminds himself. _For Gabe. For Daisy._

"That's not for you to decide," she replies, fury burning in her blue eyes. Robbie knows that her size doesn't stop her from being dangerous. She certainly won't hold back. It's best for him to assume that all of them are like Eli and Lucy were, in the end – addicted to that thing, their minds corrupted with the desire for absolute power.

It breaks his heart.

"No," says Robbie, his voice ice cold. Better to show anger than to show fear. These people don't seem to care that he's human. "It's not. That's the Rider's job. But you're too scared to bring him out, aren't you?"

An angry red flush stains the woman's neck. "I'd be more concerned with the fact that we've managed to subdue your precious spirit of vengeance," she sniffs, haughty and proud. "It will have its place eventually, if you won't do."

"I know you're using the hellforce," says Robbie, and her blush spreads to her chest and her cheeks. "I know you're releasing it in here right now, controlling the amount. You think I can't feel that? You think that all it does is hold off the Ghost Rider?"

"Just because you know –" the woman begins, but Robbie cuts her off.

"You can feel it right now," he tells her, soft, leaning in. "I know you can." He touches the back of his neck, and the blonde woman's hand instinctively does the same. "Right there, like a headache. _That's_ the hellforce. You're not meant to be in here."

"We've run countless amounts of tests with control substances in response to the quantum energy," she says quickly, and Robbie sees that she is indeed a scientist. A scientist obsessed with finding a book that holds too much information for a human mind to bear, but a scientist all the same.

All Robbie can hear as she rambles is Eli. His uncle, complaining that someone had mistaken him for janitorial staff. His uncle, ranting to an empty house that his PhD wasn't respected the same way _Joseph Bauer's_ was, as though his teammates were holding up his diploma to a light and expecting to find it counterfeit.

This blonde woman, albeit white, must go through something of the same; she must be used to her colleagues doubt and her work held to a much higher standard. Her entire career is composed of men telling her she isn't good enough.

And again his heart breaks for them, this woman and his uncle. But not enough to let them win.

"I know," Robbie says, once she's finished, "but you haven't lived it like you're living it now. Look at me and tell me that you feel nothing."

She can't.

"You might keep the Rider out, for now," he urges quietly, "but all you'll do is kill me. This isn't energy from the other place – it's friction, leaking out from the tear. We're not meant for it."

The woman shakes her head, piecing together his claims. The headache in Robbie's skull builds, spreading to his temple. "We come as a package." His words feel thick in his mouth. "The Rider and I." He winces, swallows hard. She, too, looks as though she's feeling the discomfort of the hellforce. "You take us both alive, or you don't take me at all."

The woman is mumbling something under her breath, almost certainly into a hidden microphone. The pain of the quantum friction has gotten so bad he can barely hear it. His heart jumps – is this it? Have they decided that they _don't_ need him after all?

He tries to breathe but can't, panic bearing down on him like a train. Robbie is gasping for air, sinking to his hands and knees as the blonde woman slides out the door. His head is in frantic disarray, screaming for help, but the words won't push past his lips.

 _Please please Gabe Daisy anyone -_

His vision blurs but he thinks he can make out a clipboard in the woman's hands as she takes notes, observing him like a lab rat. She watches his terror with detached interest and he can't move, can't _think._ He tried to help them both and this is all he gets in return, extended exposure to the very thing that would have him dead.

Robbie cries out and the world goes black.

* * *

The Rider wakes him this time with an angry whisper of, _Look at yourself, Roberto. Look how weak you are when I am not around to fight for you. Look how pathetic you have become when I do not save you every step of the way._

Robbie almost sobs with relief. The whispers that he hates so much have returned, and the hellforce is gone. He feels as though he has slept for twelve hours.

There is a new man standing before him – this time outside the cage. These people know the danger of the Ghost Rider, but they need both it and Robbie if they want the book back. Robbie alone knows that there is no way to go after the Darkhold.

"You gave him back," says Robbie, addressing the sharply dressed man on the other side of the glass. He is wearing a grey suit and holds a tablet in his right arm, oozing wealth. Whoever these people are, their organization has deep pockets.

"We did," replies the man, tapping away, as though the observation is of little importance.

Robbie walks straight up to the glass, leaning forward and putting one hand against it. He feels almost the same as he did in Coulson's containment module, with Mack on the other side. The difference is that those people were SHIELD, and now his friends. "Why?"

The man's smile is patronising. "Why do you think, Roberto?"

"My name is Robbie," he says, calm. He needs information from them, too. "And I want to know why you trusted me enough to do what I said. I want to know what you think you're doing, and what this place is, and who you _are –"_

"Calm yourself, Roberto," says the man gently, a hint of an accent lacing his words. "That's more than I can answer at the moment."

"You want my help?" Robbie asks, nodding. "Give me something to go off of. Otherwise I'm not talking. Not until I get a name."

"Very well." The smile is still painted on to the man's lips like an angry red slash, dried and cracking in the air of the laboratory. "I am John Mazzanti. I'm part of a very elite group of people dedicated to a very special book. It has many names, Roberto, but the one you are most familiar with is _Darkhold."_

"I know all this," Robbie says gruffly. "I told it to your blonde friend and you have it all on camera." He points to the recording device in the corner of the room, and Mazzanti looks vaguely surprised. "I'm not the creature you seem to think I am."

 _Don't put all your cards on the table,_ sneers the Rider, _just because you want to look intimidating. Hold back. If you listened to me you'd still have information to give, you senseless boy._ Robbie ignores the voice. It's always better if he does.

"We want you to tell us where to find the book," says Mazzanti smoothly. "It really will suit us all best if you do. That way we can let you leave."

Robbie knows there's no way they would. "Go to hell."

Mazzanti clucks his tongue. "Such impudence, Roberto, such… _fire."_ The smile curls, thinning into a predatory sneer. "I hate to think what would happen to that if we were forced to persuade you in order to get the information."

"You can't get the book," says Robbie flatly. The Rider roars in his ears, _They'll kill you. You tell them it's gone and they'll kill you, flay you into pieces, one strike at a time they'll kill you._

Mazzanti hears the sincerity in Robbie's voice and pauses, thrown for a loop. The Darkhold's loss is not common knowledge – they have every reason to believe it still in existence. And after all, Robbie isn't sure if they'd believe him if he told them where it was. Yes, these people surely know of the alternate dimension, but not of the fires in the centre of hell, where everything in existence goes to die and be reborn.

The Darkhold was not a book, but a fuel cell borne of these secrets of the universe. It had not been destroyed but returned to its place to fix the rift created by its existence.

Mazzanti's voice is cold, cruel. "What did you say?"

"You can't get the book," Robbie repeats, giving in to echoing the Rider's words as his eyes blaze red. _"No matter what you do, you can't get to it. I won't let you get to it."_

Mazzanti sees the eyes of the Rider and taps into his comms now, a sense of déjà vu overcoming Robbie. "Restrain him," says Mazzanti icily. "We'll need to talk to the beast."


	5. Daisy III

Gabe takes the news well. Or at least as well as he can, considering. He's guessed that something is wrong when Robbie doesn't step out of the Zephyr, when Daisy instead exits supported by Mack, a tremble in her step. There is _I'm sorry_ in the turn of her lips and the furrow of her brow.

Gabe feels very out of place among the shrieking and laughter that surrounds him and grips the sides of the chair tighter, as if that will protect him. It won't. Nothing will stop the news that will crash into Gabe's life like a freight train.

Daisy says, "Hey."

"Hey yourself," says Gabe, as if he hasn't been cloaked by _wrong_ ness since the moment that plane landed. He wonders how long it's going to take before Daisy tells him what's going on.

"Can I talk to you, Gabe?"

There it is. Gabe shrugs, blinking up at her. "You're talking to me right now, aren't you?" he asks, deliberately obtuse. He doesn't want to hear what terrible thing has befallen his brother this time. He doesn't want to hear that his brother is never coming back.

"I meant alone," Daisy says, and her voice trembles with a quality Gabe has never heard. Even when Robbie was in hell, Daisy had never sounded like _this._ The certainty and vigour in her voice is stripped down to the bone. Mack, too, is touching her elbow as if he is afraid Daisy will shatter, with a precious delicacy that hangs like a gasp over a chasm. Gabe's heart jumps into his throat.

"What's wrong?" he asks without preamble, dropping the nonchalance. "What's going on?"

Daisy hesitates. Mack mumbles from behind her, "It's alright, tremors. We talked about it earlier." Daisy's fleeting smile is far from _good_ , but it's progress. It's something. It shows she's still in there, hoping. It disappears almost as quickly as it came.

"There was a mission yesterday," says Daisy, slow, like saying it out loud will make it real. "We… were attacked. Someone came after Robbie."

A pause too long. Then – "Is he alive?" Gabe chokes out the question, wishing he had brought some sort of stim toy with him rather than suffering in this uncomfortable stillness. God, and he had been so _eager,_ too, that he had disregarded his usual comfort items in favour of waiting for Robbie to come home.

"We think so," says Daisy, her voice hoarse, and for a moment the two of them stay like that in their terrible harmony. Daisy exhales a shaky breath and whispers, "Gabe, I'm so sorry."

She leans down, pulls him into a hug that is both too long and much too short. Her grief is palpable as she straightens again, glancing to Mack with uncertainty and fear. Daisy is so, so afraid to lose him – not only Robbie, but Gabe, too.

The wide open hangar suddenly feels much too small.

"Thank you for telling me," he says, his voice detached and hollow. "I – I have to – I'm going to leave now if I can't see Robbie."

He can't get out of there fast enough. Daisy follows him at a jog, her brow furrowed, purpose returning to her step. "Gabe," she calls, her words thin but sturdy, as he wheels towards his car, earning no response. " _Gabe!"_

He reaches the door, opens it in the clumsy dance he's perfected over the months since he's gotten his license. Still Gabe says nothing to Daisy's prompting, keeping his head low and his eyes dry. He can cry at home, where no one is around to feel _sorry_ for him.

Daisy doesn't take the hint, instead leaning on the hood of the car and sighing. This she can do – put up a front, help those who need help when she can't help herself. _Everything he's feeling right now, I feel it too. We need each other. I need him._ "Gabe, look at me." He doesn't. "Gabriel Reyes, I swear – _mírame, por favor."_

That catches his attention. _"_ _¿Hablas español?_ _"_

Daisy shakes her head, switches languages again. "Not really. YoYo is helping me learn but I'm waiting until I'm good enough to…" She trails off, pretending like the heat on her cheeks isn't a blush. She's shared more than she was aiming for; in fact, she had no idea she was going to say anything at all. It just happened. "To speak it around your brother."

"That's sweet," says Gabe, cautious, his eyes narrowed. He knows Daisy, and Daisy doesn't just _talk_ about herself like this.

"I've got to be good enough," she repeats, her voice far off, and Gabe is suddenly suspicious.

"Just because _you're_ talking about your feelings doesn't mean I'm going to," he says, folding his arms over his chest. "I told you I'm fine. All it means is a couple more weeks of ramen noodles."

"Gabe, that's sad," says Daisy, cracking half a smile at odds with her red-rimmed eyes. "Stay on base, okay? At least until we find him. We could use another person to help with the search, put that consultant title of yours to use."

"You _made_ Coulson give me that title so I could have access to SHIELD computers, _just_ so you could teach me to hack them," Gabe points out, feeling a tiny bit less miserable. "I don't have any skills to give that the rest of you don't have tenfold."

"Uh, wrong," says Daisy. "Besides, you need to brush up on your internet safety skills."

"You mean covering my tracks so I don't get caught doing very illegal things."

"It's not _illegal_ if it's _SHIELD,_ " Daisy counters as they slip back into their usual routine: she says things that are stupid and irresponsible as Gabe provides the best voice of reason she's ever had. Times like these, he says, she reminds him of Robbie.

"I'll stay," says Gabe after a moment of silence. "If you let me take a quinjet to go pick up my stuff."

Daisy crinkles her nose. "What about an armoured undercover vehicle? Newest issue."

"Private plane," Gabe returns, the barest hint of a smile touching his lips.

"Helicopter?"

"Deal."

Mack says, "Tremors, come here."

Daisy jumps up from where she and Gabe are working on her laptop with barely restrained hope. Her mind is at war, once side claiming _they've found him_ and the other snarling _they've found a body, at best._ She jerks a thumb towards Gabe and asks, "Can he come along?"

Mack regards the teenager for a second, then says, "Sure." Daisy is hoping and praying for the news to be good. It has to be. Robbie has been gone for a week now, and each day with SHIELD satellites scouring the earth yields nothing.

Daisy and Gabe follow Mack into Fitz's lab, where the Scottish scientist is frowning at a computer screen. Upon their arrival, he looks up and beckons them closer, shoving some wires out of the way so Gabe's chair will fit. "So, Mack's the one who pointed this out," Fitz says without preamble, pointing at a multicoloured map of blobs ranging from red to blue. "I'd completely missed it – it's genius really, because Simmons and I have been looking at this for so long we hardly even realised what's wrong." He takes a breath, makes sure they're following, and continues with the same speed.

"This is a scan of electronic energy that stemmed from the barn in California." Fitz switches screens, brings up a mostly blue sheet with some yellow dots scattered throughout. "We used the Zephyr's imaging system to record it – it's automatic, did you know that? – and those yellow blobs there –" He points, "- those are you guys." Fitz scrolls upwards to another blue region and presses another button to project it as a hologram. Daisy steps back to avoid being caught in the criss-crossing lights.

"And this is what Mack noticed, when I had it up," says Fitz, his fingers flying over the keyboard and pulling up yet another hologram – this one in the shape of a very familiar android. AIDA. "If you zoom in, like so -" Fitz demonstrates on the first map, "-you can see that the ripples in the blue energy are created because of this _white_ energy that connects to it." He coaxes out a molecule, holding it in his hands for Daisy and Gabe and Mack to inspect.

"White," he explains, "basically means the computer has no idea what this is or where it's coming from. And May's camera shows that Robbie was affected by something in the barn, right? And then the LMDs showed up?" Fitz doesn't wait for them to answer, instead conjuring the video from May's camera feed and overlaying the energy scan. Whirling back to the AIDA-hologram, he zooms in to reveal her individual particles, blazing a bright white in the laboratory's lighting.

"This was her when she became fully human," he says. "The energy – see, here? It's _coating_ her cells, like they were formerly clean and then were dragged through this stuff." He taps the hologram again, eyes wide. "It's not the use of _molecules_ from the other dimension that created a tear, it's the friction _between_ the two – see, it's quantum electricity, which means that it acts as both a wave and a particle, making it nearly impossible to track! _Until_ it comes in contact with and bounces against -" Fitz slams his hands together for emphasis, "- another form of energy. Like static electricity, right here."

"The bond it creates is weak, like – like hydrogen bonds in water, but once the _quantum_ force is combined with the friction – it's between anything and _everything_ from our dimension, making it a perfect match for bonding – it turns into this." Fitz indicates AIDA's snow-white atoms filling the room. "It mixes universes. It's a chemical reaction from two dimensions. It's unnatural – and as the energy leaks into our world, the two places become closer. The cushion dissipates. Unless that tear is closed, we're on a path to collision." Fitz shakes his head. "It's no wonder the Ghost Rider can't stand it."

Fitz turns back to the replay of May's feed, revealing the interior of the barn. Robbie specifically is cloaked in a blinding white as he stumbles, the camera shaking as May supports him.

"Wait," Daisy says suddenly, pointing at the screen. "Why aren't the rest of us covered in that? Why just him?"

Fitz's eyes are wide, his lips parted slightly as he watches along with the rest of them. "Because he's like it," he says, as though it's obvious. "The energy is friction from our dimension surrounded by a quantum force from Hell. Robbie – he's holding Hell inside him, every day. They're opposites, the two forces, pulling in a million directions."

Daisy shuts her eyes. "And it's killing him."

Soon after, Daisy takes control, beckoning Gabe towards her and enlisting Mack's help – she's been trying to teach the both of them to hack for a while _(years,_ in Mack's case) and now they'll need to put it to use. "Okay," she says, sitting at Fitz's computer and pulling up HTML coding. "I'm going to take this particular energy signature and give it a new colour…. uh, purple. If any of that energy is still on Robbie, it'll show up in the traffic feeds we were looking through before. Got it?"

Daisy's fingers fly across the keyboard like she's playing the piano, and suddenly the faint white particles turn to a deep purple. "Gabe, I need you to do highways. Mack, back roads?"

"I'm not as bad at this as you think I am," he grumbles with humour. "I can scan the back roads."

Daisy pulls up three different screens at once and sighs, turning around to face Fitz. "Thank you," she says with a nod. "I – thank you for finding this. For giving us a chance."

Fitz smiles and says, "Of course," and Daisy is struck by how damn much she loves these people. Fitz and Mack and Gabe – her boys _. Her_ boys.

Then she clears her head, sits down, and begins scanning. Love alone won't find Robbie, but hard work and diligence might just do the trick.

It takes an hour and a half but Gabe finally calls out, "I've got something." The rest of them surge towards him in anticipation, watching as he clicks three times and pulls up a moving van stained deep in purple. Daisy's heart is beating a so hard she can hear it.

"Fitz," says Mack, "can you pull up a hologram?"

Fitz obliges and Daisy cries, "There!" Against the side of the vehicle is a murky but distinctly human shape displayed in a deep eggplant hue. _Robbie._ It has to be. For a few seconds the team of four just stand there, staring. Hoping. Hardly daring to believe it true.

"Let's all track its progress," Daisy says, almost surprised to hear herself speak. "We'll see where it goes and see if we can find anywhere else with that energy, if they're housing LMDs."

She feels Mack's hand on her shoulder and turns to see him smiling at her in steady support. Gabe's voice comes next in agreement, then Mack, then Fitz. Daisy returns to her chair and sits down heavily, relief flooding through her soul.

On the screen Daisy tracks the truck's energy signature, hopping from one satellite's surveillance cameras to the next. She watches the stops it makes, even catches a glimpse of what looked like Rider once as her heart soars with tentative hope. Please. _Please._

She is the one who makes the next discovery, and all of her hope turns to confusion as she calls her makeshift team to her side. "Good news," she begins. "We have a location. It's a rural area in Nevada." She frowns heavily, hesitating. "Bad news: the facility where Robbie's being held?" Daisy takes a deep breath and swivels around her chair, wishing she were wrong. "It's SHIELD."


	6. Robbie III

Robbie doesn't know what to expect. Mazzanti strides out of the room and Robbie lets out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. His heart is racing – he is so _afraid,_ more than he has been in weeks. What are these people going to do to him? What do they expect to get out of the Ghost Rider?

A shudder runs through Robbie's entire body and he flexes his hands, properly surveying the area for the first time. Mack's voice comes back to him the way it does in training, firm and steady. _Look around, Matchstick. Tell me what you see here._

The room is a lab. It has to be. The glass box that he's standing in functions like a cage – no, a containment module. Robbie recognises the material. Mack's voice comes back to him. _Tell me how you know. Extrapolate on that. Use everything you've got._ The other man is a patient but demanding SO and Robbie is now grateful for all he's learned.

The floor has the same pattern as the walls of the containment module. In fact, the glass is lined with the familiar criss-crossing pattern Robbie saw when he shattered the pane on the Zephyr. Fitz had created that material to adapt to Inhuman powers.

 _Tell me what you know._

There are two things he can infer. The first is that he can, if he tries hard enough, break out of this cage. The second is that the technology used to secure him belongs to SHIELD. Robbie doesn't want to think of what that means.

For better or for worse, he doesn't have the opportunity. The door leading out of the lab opens and Mazzanti walks in, accompanied by the bespectacled blonde from earlier. Robbie straightens and faces them, nodding as though they are on equal ground. His systems launch into overdrive and he finds himself repeating a familiar soothing phrase.

 _My name is Roberto Reyes. I am twenty-nine years old. Four years ago I died and returned burdened by the Ghost Rider and its promise of vengeance._ The spirit growls approvingly as the mantra from hell plays over and over in Robbie's head.

 _My name is Roberto Reyes._ In for five. _I am twenty-nine years old._ Hold for three. _Four years ago I died and returned burdened by the Ghost Rider and its promise of vengeance._ Out for eight.

He is surprised that he feels better. Clarity returns to his thoughts. Robbie has a hidden advantage now.

"Mr. Reyes," says the blonde, her eyes sweeping nervously to Mazzanti. So she defers to him. Maybe she wants to look good in front of her boss; maybe she's afraid of him. "We have two options at the present moment."

"What's your name?" asks Robbie, ignoring the question. He watches her eyes go to his again, the tiny nod that Mazzanti gives her.

"Doctor Jessica Taine," she says with steel like nothing Robbie's ever heard. "This is the last time you're going to ask a question, is that understood?" He doesn't answer. "Am I under _stood,_ Mr. Reyes?"

"Yes."

"Good." There is a sneer curling at Dr Taine's lips and Robbie's gut feeling marks her as the most dangerous threat in the room. "Now. We have two options at the present moment. The first is that you let us interrogate the Ghost Rider, and the second is that we make you let us interrogate the Ghost Rider."

Unable to stop the smile that slips out, Robbie holds up his hands in surrender. "I'll let you, Dr Taine."

Eyes narrowed, she glares at him. "While you're at it, I'd like you to tell me what you find so amusing."

Robbie shrugs a shoulder. "Listen, Dr Taine. I died. My uncle tried to kill me. I've been through hell twice. You are far from the scariest thing I've ever met." He shakes his head. "But the Rider? He's going to be something new for all of you. And considering you've locked me up here, the look on your face is going to be the funniest thing I've seen all week."

Already he can feel his skin heat up, burning away as the Ghost Rider claws its way into the air. Robbie is right – both Taine and Mazzanti step back in horror as the spirit laughs. No amount of research could have prepared them for _this._

Dr Taine recovers first, clearing her throat and walking straight up to the glass. Robbie strains to hear the conversation but the words exchanged are murky as the Rider revels in its control. For once, though, there is something comforting about the being that shares Robbie's head, because he knows that this time they are on the same team.

The pitch black recesses of thought swallow Robbie whole as the battle between woman and spirit rages outside. Occasionally Taine's shout is loud enough to penetrate the cloud but the majority of the time is spent grappling for any handhold large enough to keep him connected to his own body. As he drifts, Robbie realises that he trusts the Rider. For both of their self-interests, he has to.

 _My name is Roberto Reyes. I am twenty-nine years old. Four years ago I died and returned burdened by the Ghost Rider and its promise of vengeance._

The Rider hasn't been this angry in a long time, but Robbie can tell it is holding back. Otherwise both Mazzanti and Dr Taine would be dead, burned to a crisp, with shattered glass piling around their bodies. Robbie can _feel_ the spirit's intentions and is infinitely grateful for its restraint.

"Give us back the boy."

In an instant, the two minds switch places. Robbie rises again, human, and fixes Dr Taine with a dull stare. "You're lucky we need you," she says. "And you're lucky we need _that."_

"The Rider," says Robbie, his voice hoarse. "I told you, we come as a package. Can't have one without the other."

"I don't know how to explain this to you, Roberto," Taine tells him with deadly softness. "Because we _will_ get the book, no matter how you feel on the issue. It's only a matter of when."

"I'm not a boy," says Robbie instead.

"What?"

"You told him to give you back the _boy,"_ he says with a nod. "I'm twenty-nine. I'm an adult. And I'm _human,_ despite whatever the hell you think." He moves closer to the glass so that he can see the blue in her eyes. "I don't belong to you."

Taine tosses her head dismissively, stepping back and nodding to Mazzanti. Robbie realises something has shifted in the dynamic of their power. Mazzanti might be the diplomat, the voice, but when it comes to the Darkhold and the science it contains, _Taine_ is the expert. Mazzanti is only along for the power and the ride.

"I don't care," she replies with a sweet smile, turning on her heel and gesturing for Mazzanti to follow. "Come along, John. We're far from out of options."

* * *

After two days Robbie realises what the next option must mean. No one comes into his cell. Meals – if they can be called that – are delivered by a young man who never even makes eye contact. Robbie remembers a lesson taught by May on solitary confinement, defined as twenty-three hours or more per day without human contact.

As he paces the cell he recalls her lessons, the memory of May cold and comforting. _In the first week, there's little risk of showing symptoms._ Robbie is on day two. _Soon after you'll be affected both physically and mentally._

 _You'll be prone to headaches and insomnia. Your eyesight will weaken. Expect mood swings. The longer you stay, the worse everything will become._ Robbie has been alone before. He dreads the thought of the same thing happening again.

 _Depression. Anxiety. Trouble connecting with people socially. You're not better than anyone else just because you know it's going to happen._ After forty-eight hours in this cell with no sign of getting out, Robbie feels that familiar fear creeping in again. What would Mack do? What would May do? What would Daisy do?

They would plan. They'd use their advantages and create an escape route to be executed when the time was right. Robbie needs to think like that. Robbie needs to think like an agent of SHIELD.

He takes a deep breath. What he knows is limited but helpful: he's in a place using SHIELD tech, systems he knows. He _could_ break out of the cage that he's kept in, but most likely wouldn't make it far. Since spotting the initial camera, Robbie has seen three more in the other corners of the lab. There's only one door that leads out of the room and into the hallway.

With this knowledge, what can _he_ do?

Apparently the cult of Darkhold-obsessed scientists doesn't trust him with utensils, so Robbie has nothing sharper than a plastic fork. No matter – the Ghost Rider is weapon enough. A tine of the fork, however, could be useful to pick locks. He'll have to keep one the next time the boy comes by with his meals.

Robbie has seen flashes of the hallway outside, which is long and well lit. He'll have to wait until night to make his escape, when the security cameras can't track his motion nearly as well. He can pick the lock on the door, destroy the devices with fire, and make his way into the hall. At this point it's guaranteed that he's set off some sort of alarm.

 _What's the plan?_

Optimally Robbie would be able to leave, but realistically he would need to contact Daisy briefly so she could track the phone call and come find him. He has no idea how the base is lain out, so speed is to be optimal. If he lets out the Rider as soon as he is apprehended, there's a small chance he can hold his own for a few minutes.

 _What's the plan?_

The Rider can be subdued by the hellforce, at which point his kidnappers will realise the need for an increase in security. Once this has occurred, Robbie can only hope that Daisy will be on the way. There's little chance of escaping on his own afterwards.

 _What's the plan?_

Break out. Find a phone. Fight anyone who dares approach. But solitary confinement is lonely, and Robbie doesn't know when the opportunity to leave will present. He has to be patient. He needs some sort of companionship. He needs –

 _Maia._

Everything in Robbie revolts at the Ghost Rider's suggestion but the more he thinks, the more he can feel that she's necessary. With a shaky breath he nods to the thing in his head. _Alright._

That's the plan.

"Hey."

"I'm only speaking to you," Robbie warns, turning around, "because I don't want to lose my goddamn mind in here, alright?"

"That's your first mistake," says Maia. Robbie swears she looks older somehow, like she had time to grow up. She's not _real,_ though. He forces the thought through his skull as though it will dampen the heartbreak. "You're not speaking to me at all."

"You're not _real,"_ Robbie says with a grief-stricken fury. "You don't have the right to get all in my head when you're not even real, Maia, not when –"

"I'm as real as you let me be, Robbie," she says softly, and he shuts his eyes. Not this. Not again. He cannot bear to care for the subset of the monster in his head.

"Stay in the corner," he whispers. "Only speak to me when I speak to you." For the first time since Maia's initial betrayal does he truly face her and look her in the eyes. "And how _dare you,"_ Robbie growls, "call _me_ a monster?"

Maia doesn't answer, merely sits down and stares at him with those dark eyes. Robbie wishes he could say that he doesn't feel guilty but the feeling settles like a lead cape over his shoulders. _This is the plan,_ he reminds himself. He has to see it through if he wants to survive.

Robbie sits down on the opposite side of the room and stares right back.

* * *

After five and a half days of only Maia for company – seven total in this glass box – the door doesn't click as the boy walks out with Robbie's empty tray. Maia notices too, her eyes sharp as she and Robbie reach the same conclusion.

 _The room is unlocked. They run tonight._


	7. Daisy IV

"SHIELD," Daisy whispers. "This can't be possible. _SHIELD!"_

"There's got to be some sort of mistake," Mack says, shaking his head. "SHIELD couldn't have taken Robbie; we're the ones trying to get him back. That's impossible. And if there were any tests that we needed to perform –"

"Simmons and I were going to run some anyway." Fitz's eyes are fixed on the screen, zeroed in on the blinking purple dot filled with energy that shows where Robbie has been taken. "There was no need to _kidnap_ him for it."

"You're telling me SHIELD is behind this?" Gabe butts in, glancing from person to person with a wild fury. All of his initial hesitance and mistrust comes surging back with a vengeance. "Aren't you guys supposed to be protecting him?"

"We're trying." Daisy looks just alarmed as he does. "This isn't us. We need to call Coulson," she says, resting her head in her hands. "If anyone knows what this means, he will. SHIELD wouldn't do something like this, and Coulson has direct control over all of our projects. He can make sense of this. He's the director again." Her words are tenous, as though she is trying to convince herself.

"Wait a second, tremors," Mack says haltingly. "If there's any change SHIELD has taken Robbie, it means that the project would be under Coulson's control. I don't want you confronting him on that and getting hurt."

Daisy's lips tremble and her gaze flips to his, distraught. "You don't think…?"

"I don't," says Mack, his voice a comforting rumble. "But just in case. Let me come with you."

Exhaling shakily, Daisy nods, squaring her shoulders and sniffling. "God," she says, "I hope you're wrong, Mack. I've never wanted that before, but now more than ever I hope that you're wrong."

"Me too," Mack says, reaching out to lay a reassuring hand on Daisy's arm. "Believe me, I do too."

The three of them decide that Fitz and Gabe will stay in the lab to monitor the activity, while Daisy and Mack will confront Coulson. Everyone seems alright with that agreement so Daisy and Mack head upstairs, an electric tension crackling between them.

 _What if. What if. What if._ All Daisy can think is, _Not Coulson. Please, not Coulson._ But she remembers the terrible certainty of betrayal she felt with Ward, and she doesn't feel it now.

"Hey," says Mack as they near the office. "I didn't mean to put you in a mood like that, Dais. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Daisy swallows hard, nods. "I know," she says. "But that place _is_ SHIELD, and we have no idea what's going on there. That in itself is pretty intimidating."

Mack doesn't look convinced of her answer but lets the subject drop as they approach, letting Daisy knock. No response. Daisy knocks again. "Coulson?"

From inside there is a clatter and seconds later May appears in the doorway, deadpan as ever. Daisy and Mack just stare at her, putting two and two together with the horror of a ten-year-old getting a talk about puberty. "Yes?"

"Uhhh…" says Daisy, her mind momentarily wiped blank. "Hey, May."

May fixes her with a _look_ that makes Daisy sheepish. "Really?" she asks. "Honestly, between the two of you, I don't know whether I'm working with trained spies or teenagers. What do you need? Coulson and I are busy."

"Busy," says Mack, unable to help the jab.

May glares. "Yes, _busy._ Doing _paperwork."_

Soon enough, Coulson joins her at the doorway, looking thoroughly frazzled. Daisy doesn't miss the smirk that comes to May's lips at the sight of him. "Hey Mack," says Coulson, nodding in their direction, "Daisy. What are you two up to? Do you need anything? May isn't scaring you off, is she?"

The other two agents, both completely weirded out, give noises of compliance. "We were… actually here to ask you a question," Daisy says, her brow furrowed. "Uh… can we come in?" She shoots Mack a look that asks _are they having sex or what?_ and receives one that says _they are definitely having sex. Nobody looks like that doing paperwork._

Coulson's desk is a mess. The paperwork itself is strewn across the table top, various half-filled forms carpeting the surface like a collage. With a straight face, Coulson says, "Yeah, I messed up the alphabetical order when I was trying to get a cup of coffee, and May judo flipped me."

There is not a single cup of coffee anywhere. Daisy and Mack exchange glances but wisely keep to themselves. Coulson and May aren't fooling anyone.

"Mhm," says Daisy, surveying the place. "Anyway, um, Mack and I got a lead on Robbie you might want to check out."

May's face lights up. "You found something? Daisy, that's incredible."

"Yeah," Mack butts in, his face stony. "Not exactly. Fitz helped us track this energy signature to a facility where we're pretty sure he's being held. But the thing is that it's a base in Nevada. A _SHIELD_ base."

Coulson and May wear identical expressions of surprise. _"What?"_

"It's definitely our area," says Daisy with a confidence she didn't know she had. "I traced it three different ways and it all leads back to there. We want to contact our guys there, see how long its been since we checked up on them."

"I just sent a team in a quinjet three days ago," Coulson says. "They should be reporting back…"

"Two hours ago," May interjects, horror dawning on her. "The team dispatched for the Nevada base was supposed to check back two hours ago. _Dammit,_ if there's a way that Radcliffe's gang could have been involved –"

"Hey," says Coulson, touching her arm. "It's alright. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We can make a call right now, get in touch with the team, and confirm what's going on. Maybe they can bring him home."

Daisy looks back at Mack with a smile that says, _looks like you were wrong after all._ The partners know each other so well they don't need words to communicate. Mack returns the look with a warmth that makes Daisy's heart burst.

Maybe this is going to be okay.

Reaching for the phone, Coulson clears off his desk and consults a chart. "Alright," he says, speaking mostly to himself. "Nevada. Nevada, Nevada… here we go." He dials and the four agents wait in silence. All that can be heard is the faint ringing that leaks through the phone's speakers.

Nothing. "Odd," says Coulson, frowning. "I'll try again."

The next time yields the same result. So does the next. Coulson tries the comm units of every agent dispatched to Nevada and gets no reply. Tension builds in the little office as call after call ends with dull static and a click. Daisy is trying her best not to panic.

"Check the video feeds," May suggests. "We get it all delivered here, don't we?"

Coulson nods and his fingers fly across the keyboard at his desk, scrolling through hours of security footage from SHIELD bases around the world. "Here," he says. "This should show."

All the cameras are on, but something feels off. The team of agents sent from the Playground is nowhere to be found. Coulson speeds through the coverage, going back until Daisy says, "Wait."

"What?"

"Mark that point," she instructs, pushing him aside to sit at the computer. "Then skip ahead twenty-four hours… here." Both frames are identical. "They're looping the footage," she says, "so nothing registers as wrong. It's not too difficult to hack the cameras, but SHIELD has an extra layer of protection that takes a while to get through. Which means there's a two-minute interval that should show us what's really going on…. _here."_

All the camera feeds burst to life at once, displaying chaos from every angle. The Nevada base was brutally attacked, and yet no help had been sought. The electronics don't appear to be working as SHIELD agents yell for backup, completely overwhelmed by enemy forces. Every few seconds an agent goes down. Mack reaches out to pause the video, and the room falls silent.

"Look," he says, pointing. "LMDs. I don't know how they're getting around an EMP device, but that's what they are. They all look the same."

Daisy remembers something Simmons had told her long ago. "Radcliffe's fuel cell," she breathes. "It has a magnetically shielded core. It's what was able to save May, but it also makes them resistant to EMPs. They must have been able to get information on Robbie and the Darkhold through SHIELD files after they took over."

"And the agents?" Mack asks the question as if he doesn't want to know the answer. "Is there any sign of what happened to them?"

For a moment the room goes quiet as the two-minute fight scene loops over and over. Then Coulson pinches his temples and looks away from the carnage, wincing as an agent's scream plays through the speakers in tinny shock. "Dead," he says, shutting his eyes. "Probably."

May puts a hand on his arm. Daisy sees how harshly the role of Director is affecting Coulson, and she is afraid. He isn't exactly a young man anymore. The silence is the loudest thing in the room.

Daisy reaches out and shuts off the video. "We have information now," she says, all business. "That's a win for us, right? We'll have to shut off the Nevada base's access to files and then go in to get –"

"No," May says, cutting her off. "We can't. The minute we shut off that base, they'll know we're onto them. We have to let them be until we're ready to send in a STRIKE team, and even then, we can't remotely dismantle the base until minutes before the team arrives."

"If they're hurting Robbie –"

"They'll do worse if they figure out they've been exposed," May warns. "Listen to me, Daisy. I know what I'm doing."

"I want in on that STRIKE team," Daisy says instead, because she knows May is right. "I want to lead it. This is personal, May."

Mack nods. "I'd like to go as well." Daisy has never felt more grateful that she has such an incredible partner.

"Well, Director?" asks Daisy with a humour she doesn't feel. She _has_ to lead that team. She _has_ to save Robbie. She _has_ to.

"Mack should lead the team," Coulson says, nodding to the other man. "Daisy, I know this is personal, but it might be a bit too personal. I don't want anything to be too emotional to the point of compromising the mission. If it were May, I know I would need to be taken off the case." A rush of affection she didn't expect wells tears in Daisy's eyes, and she nods. Coulson regards her with pride as he continues. "I think it's very brave of you to go in."

"I can handle it," Daisy replies, flipping on her usual charm with a smirk. "After all, Mack and I make a pretty good team."

"Yeah, about that," Coulson says, returning the smile. "Take May, YoYo and Piper with you. Fitzsimmons too. I want Fitz to mess with the electronics on the LMDs and Jemma to get samples of that energy from the lab. I'll even let you have a plane."

"That damn Bus," says May with nostalgic fondness. "I'm driving; you hear?"

"Yes ma'am," Mack says, as Daisy looks around at the people who have become her team and her closest family. "Wouldn't dream of anything otherwise."

"Thank you," Daisy says, clearing her throat. "Thank you, Coulson."

The Director looks up at her with a smile. "Believe me, if I could go with you, I could. The next plane is going to touch down tomorrow before dawn, which should leave more than enough time to debrief the group today. The plane can refuel and you can leave by nightfall. I'll be in here, doing paperwork."

"Paperwork," Mack and Daisy say together.

"Without May."

"Oh."

"Don't read too far into it," May says with mock-annoyance. "We have a long plane ride ahead of us. Coulson and I will write up the mission report and meet you in the common room in fifteen. Let everyone else know, alright."

"Consider it done," says Daisy, her heart full. They're going to get him back. Tomorrow night, she'll _finally_ be on her way to get Robbie back. After all this time, she'll be able to see him again.

* * *

Eight hours later, in the dead of night, Daisy's phone begins to ring.


	8. Robbie IV

Robbie acts fast, sliding the plastic fork tine out of his sleeve and holding it loosely in the palm of his hand. He takes out the camera in seconds and starts a mental clock, knowing that from here on out every move could be his last.

Hands shaking, the door unlocks with a click and Robbie slips out. Maia follows on lookout as the two of them move towards the door, destroying the rest of the security cameras on the way. "You don't have to be here, you know," he mumbles in a low voice as he opens the door and finally walks into the hall.

There are three more cameras but the night is dark, so Robbie burns them to a crisp with no warning. Gone. _Good._ Maia shrugs from behind him as Robbie nearly runs down the hall, looking for a control room. "Sure I do. You like me better than him."

"You _are_ him." Robbie doesn't know why he's wasting his breath but continues to speak anyway, stopping dead at an intersection where one hallway intersects the next. He hesitates, then goes left without bothering to check if Maia is with him.

"No," Maia corrects him, coming up on Robbie's side. "I'm _us._ Both of us. Without me, there would be no Maia, but without _you,_ Maia wouldn't exist in the first place. In some ways, Maia is just the middle man."

The hallway curves and splits again; Robbie takes a right and then another left. The corridor spills into a common room and Robbie sighs in relief. His qualms about Maia and the Rider evaporate at the sight of this new opportunity. "Telephone," he whispers to her, scanning the ceiling for security cameras and finding two of them. "We've got to contact SHIELD."

As he takes out the cameras, Robbie realises that this place isn't only using SHIELD technology but rather _is_ a SHIELD base itself. He stops dead for a moment, wavering and wondering how the hell the Darkhold-obsessed cult of scientists could have gotten their hands on this. The thought that the atrocities held here were SHIELD authorised is banished from his head almost as soon as it occurs. Coulson would _never._

Robbie is spurred back to life as another idea flits across his brain: he trusts them, the team. Not just Daisy, but Mack, May, YoYo, Coulson – all of them. They're his people now, and he in some way is just as responsible for them as they are for him.

The phone is Robbie's saviour. His eyes land on the sleek black design and he springs towards it, heart pounding. He needs to work _fast_ in order to get the information to SHIELD. Robbie's fingers move all on their own accord as his mind is fogged with adrenaline and as he presses 'call' he realises that he's dialled the wrong number.

The call is going straight to Daisy's personal phone. In his haste, he had punched in the familiar pattern and noticed the mistake too late. Robbie doesn't have the time to fix it.

"Hello?" Daisy's voice is rough, a bit sceptical. Robbie's breath catches in his throat and she speaks again, sounding a bit annoyed. "Who is this?"

"Hey." His script goes out the window. "Uh, it's – it's me, Daisy. It's just me."

"Oh my God," Daisy whispers. Her words tremble with an emotion Robbie fails to place. Fear? Happiness? Relief? He can't tell. _"Robbie?"_

"Yeah," he responds just as quietly, his lips almost brushing the receiver. "Listen, I don't have much time. I was hoping you could trace the call so you could get me out of here."

"We've already found the base," Daisy says, speaking with the same urgency. "You're in Nevada. It's been compromised by a group of –"

"Darkhold obsessed scientists and some unfriendly cult members," Robbie finishes, his words dry. "Yeah. I've gotten the memo."

Daisy's laugh hitches. Robbie aches to see her. "If there's a possibility this call is being tracked, I don't want to give away any details, but – we're coming, Robbie. You've got to wait for us, okay?"

"Doing my best," Robbie says fondly. "I'm still hanging on."

"Hang on a little longer," Daisy breathes. "For me?"

"For you?" Robbie hasn't realised how dearly he misses her, her shape and her laugh and her eyes and her sparking, electric personality and her _soul,_ golden and loud and free and beautiful. He misses her so much. "Anything."

Little puffs of Daisy's breath crackle across the line and Robbie's chest pangs with longing. "I love you," she murmurs, and Robbie doesn't think he's ever heard words quite as beautiful.

Which, of course, is when it all goes to shit.

The lights flicker on and Robbie drops the phone, the cord bouncing as Daisy's tinny voice spurts into the air. "Robbie? _Robbie?"_

Across the room is a pack of masked LMDs holding rifles, their stance ready and on guard. "I love you too," Robbie whispers into the air as the Ghost Rider roars behind Robbie's temples and tears itself into the light.

He knows how this is going to go. It has happened once before, in the ruins of an old barn standing in the middle of a field. Robbie can hold his own, but not for long. So the only thing he can do is make it as hard as possible to take him down.

Daisy is still screaming his name through the phone, but Robbie is forced to ignore it. He and the Ghost Rider surge together in deadly harmony, putting a hand to the main room's console and lighting it up. The air turns acrid with the stench of burning plastic but Robbie doesn't hesitate as the fire spreads, turning to the drapes and spreading the chaos.

 _Kill them all,_ snarls the Rider. Maia, of course, has long since disappeared. _Burn the place and kill them all._ The air is thick and heavy with smoke but that sort of thing has long since affected Robbie. His eyes adjust as though to the dark, the red glow searing through the dusk.

Shots come flying from the LMDS, which of course have no reaction to the smoke. They're androids. All the fire will do is slow them down the way bullets slow down Robbie. As the Rider, he can't even feel them.

The room is in complete disarray. Chairs are thrown everywhere, their wooden legs splintered and scattered across the floor. In absence of his chain, Robbie picks one up and slings it over his shoulder like a club, advancing on the LMDs. The flaming bat makes quick work of the androids but more pour in soon after, an overwhelming force just like before. The room is heating quickly, too hazardous for a human to enter. _Good._

Robbie has never experienced this level of synchronisation with the Rider. He feels what it feels, he wants what it wants. They fight as one; their minds are linked. The spot in the back of Robbie's consciousness, where he often lies adrift, is empty. This is his fight too.

 _Crack._ The wooden stick breaks into a million pieces so Robbie fights with his hands, going straight in and playing dirty. The LMDs feel nothing so he tears and strikes at them, pulling at their heads until the circuits pop, yanking off their arms at the sockets. Their false blood covers his hands and stains the clothes he's been forced into.

For Daisy he can fight. For Gabe he can fight. For his freedom he _will_ fight, because he knows they're coming for him. In this room, covered in the carnage of robots and drenched in sweat, smoke weaving through his hair, Robbie has _faith._ So he'll just have to hold on a little bit longer.

When the hellforce blasts through his skull, Robbie doesn't even feel defeated. He feels lucky. He's gotten this far.

Although he might not be able to escape now, he can absolutely make life hell for his kidnappers until that quinjet lands. And he's damn well ready to do it, because _nobody_ messes with the Ghost Rider and gets away with it. While he's at it, he thinks as he crumbles, nobody messes with Robbie Reyes either.

* * *

Robbie is left alone as he comes to. Glancing around, he realises that the hellforce has been turned back on and the security cameras reinstated. He's been out for a while. No matter – soon enough someone will be in to talk to him, and Robbie will get his way.

Maia, too, is gone again. It makes him a little bit sad that he can't get her back.

Just as he predicted, the door clicks open and Dr Taine walks in, her heels making sharp noises against the floor. "Hey," says Robbie, as if greeting an old friend, just to rile her up. Taine's lips tighten and he knows he's succeeded.

"To think we'd just began to get along," Taine purrs, ignoring him. "And you had to go and ruin it all, Roberto. The damage done is rather significant. I take it I'll be sending you the bill."

"Hilarious." Robbie sits on the ground and pulls his legs up to his chest, destroying the dynamic between them. He's _done_ with being afraid, playing into their games and drama and absolute _bullshit._ "The way I see it, you've got a wrecked room on your hands, a prisoner who won't stay still, and you're no closer to finding the book. You're too smart to try torture, because I won't talk. I've endured worse than you."

"I'll just kill you, then," Taine growls, and she means it.

"Good luck."

"Without the Rider to save you?" She sneers, almost feral in her anger. "I can rip you apart with my hands, Roberto. I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you."

Robbie looks up at her, lips twitching into a smile. "I'll talk," he says. "I'll tell you where the book is. Turn off the hellforce and I'll tell you."

"I don't buy that you're afraid of me for a second." Taine's voice is wary. "Why are you bartering with me?"

"Goodness of my heart?" Robbie suggests. "Take the deal or leave it, Doctor. Give back the Rider and give you instructions to get to the book." Of course, the book is gone, having been thrown in the pits of hell and melted by an eternal flame. But Taine doesn't know that, and she's desperate.

"You first," the scientist snaps. "I don't owe you _anything."_

"Considering that you locked me in a glass box for a week, that really should be my sentiment." Robbie is surprised at how blasé he is about the whole situation. Then he remembers the shit he's gone through before this and decides that mad scientists really aren't at the top of his weird-ness list. Which is sad.

They are standing in a wavering stalemate, neither of them budging. Robbie takes a deep breath and says, "Have you heard of hell?"

"I'm an atheist," Taine replies, drier than dry.

"Does that mean you've heard of it or not?"

She glares. Robbie's beginning to have a little fun with this. The conversation with Daisy – her words, the sound of her smile over the phone – has invigorated him. Robbie is so far from hopeless now.

"Hey, alright, I'll give you benefit of the doubt and assume yes," Robbie says, leaning in close. Taine's eyes are wild with hunger. "It's another dimension – _the_ other dimension. In the middle of it there's a fire that's been burning since the beginning of time, black as pitch, hotter than the sun. That's where the book is. I brought it there myself, so it couldn't be touched by greedy hands like yours."

"And yet," Taine whispers, "you tell me. Why are you so confident?"

Robbie nods. "Turn it off. Give him back."

Taine keeps her promise and her word; Robbie's headache recedes as he leans in to speak to her. "Because I know you'll never find the book," he says softly. "Because I have a plan you'll never learn. Because you're losing this fight you've tried so dearly to win. Because you made this a game, and I'm holding all the cards. And because I have something you'll never understand."

"And what's that?" Taine challenges, her chin jutted.

"Love," Robbie whispers, and the Rider shatters the glass.


	9. Daisy V

"Mack," Daisy hisses, her face alight. " _Mack!"_

It is late – sometime past midnight, when the base is silent save for the guards that patrol its exterior. Daisy has burst into Mack and YoYo's room with no regard for the hour, her phone glowing with daylight's vengeance. The noise is enough to rouse Mack, who groans and shields his eyes with a hand. "Daisy? What the –"

"Robbie called," she says, waving around the phone. "He was caught but he's _alright,_ Mack, he's alive and he's waiting for us – we need to leave. Immediately."

Mack massages his temples and swings his legs off of the bed. "Slow down, tremors," he says, brow furrowing as he takes in everything she's saying. Daisy realises now probably wasn't the best time to barge in. "Robbie contacted you? Our head-lighting-on-fire Robbie Reyes?"

"The very same," Daisy replies, hope brimming in her voice.

"Alright." Mack stands up, stretches. "Give me the run down. Robbie _just_ called you, in the middle of the night, from the base where he's being held. I'm taking it that the Darkhold folks weren't too thrilled with this?"

Daisy nods to confirm. "He was only able to access the phone for a few minutes," she says. "There was a fight after he was caught – it lasted about ten minutes before the call disconnected. I was able to track it again, and the location we got is right. I have pretty exact coordinates now."

"Well," Mack sighs, putting his hands on his hips, "that's good, at least. But if these scientists know that he's trying to leave, or that he contacted you, we could all be in danger. We might need to take a quinjet and leave in the morning instead of tonight."

Daisy deflates slightly, looking up at Mack with pleading eyes. "Can we not leave now?"

"Listen, the way I see it," Mack says, "we're going to leave either way. We're going to get to him either way. And I'd prefer my team to be well rested before we go. This isn't anything we've dealt with before, so I want you to stay sharp. Get some rest, Daisy. I'll talk to Coulson now about switching the launch time to the morning."

"But –"

"It is –" Mack checks the alarm clock behind him, "– two thirty-three AM, tremors. I'm sure nobody would thank you if we left right now, including yourself. Go back to sleep and I'll let you know when you need to get ready, alright? Take the pressure of yourself. Robbie will be okay for a few more hours."

Daisy is quiet for a while longer but nods, glancing up at Mack with gratitude. "Thank you," she says, and hugs him, her small arms tight around his chest. "I think Coulson was right, to have you lead this op. You're good at that. And you're his SO, Mack." Her eyes are watery but rimmed with steel. "He needs you too."

"Go to bed, Daisy," Mack says again. She nods and takes a deep breath, shutting the door with a click as she leaves. Mack wipes a tear from his eye as he lies down again next to Elena, listening to her breathe.

Who knew he'd be so attached to that Robbie kid by now?

* * *

Daisy is surprised at how quickly she crashes, asleep almost as soon as she hits the bed. It seems only moments after she put down her head, Coulson is shaking her shoulder and the sound of an alarm is blaring in her ear. "Wh- what?"

The director of SHIELD grins like it's Daisy's first day of kindergarten. "You were really out, so May and I decided we'd just let you sleep. Wheels up in ten, your stuff is already packed."

Daisy scrambles out of bed, her hair sticking up in a million directions as he slips out of the room. "Coulson!" she calls to his retreating back. "Coulson, come on! _Coulson!"_ She shakes her head in good-natured exasperation as she hears him chuckling halfway down the hall.

Well. It looks like Daisy has ten minutes to get ready.

The plane hasn't yet touched down, so Mack and the rest of his team are taking a hastily prepared quinjet instead. Daisy jogs into the main room to find the rest of them waiting and sends a firm glare in May's direction. "Took you long enough," May says with a smirk.

"Thanks for the wake-up call," Daisy responds with mock-offence. She shoulders her bag and glances over at Mack, who is surveying the two of them with amusement. "Are we ready to go, then?"

"Just waiting on you, tremors," Mack says, gesturing the team of agents towards the quinjet. "Let's go get your boy."

The group files onto the plane, tension building as the hatch closes and May takes her place at the controls. YoYo straps in next to Mack and Daisy; across from them are Piper and Fitzsimmons. "Déjà vu," YoYo says as she looks around. "Going to pick up a prisoner from a bunch of scientists obsessed with the Darkhold."

"Yeah," Daisy agrees with a huff. "Except this time it's our guy we're saving."

"Eh," YoYo agrees, grinning. "Your guy, really. I'm just coming because he's a good cook and his Spanish is better than Mack's. Right Mack?"

"That's not fair," Mack grumbles fondly. "Unless you're saying that it's _you_ who's the bad teacher, considering that's where all my lessons are coming from."

 _""Yo creo que ella está bien_ _,"_ Daisy says, trying to eliminate the jitters of the mission. They can talk about Robbie freely now that they're on their way to go get him and bring him home. And they _will_ bring him home.

"Come on, _cabrona,"_ Mack complains, all in good humour. "Are you really trying to one-up me now? After I got you invited to these Spanish lessons in the first place?"

"I could have just asked Robbie," Daisy returns, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Yes, yes, but you're a _hopeless_ romantic," Elena butts in. "So you are making me teach you in order to make it a surprise."

"Hey!" Daisy tries to sound offended, but she's laughing. "I thought it would be sweet."

"It is sweet," YoYo says. "So sweet I'm getting a cavity. At least you have stopped answering me in Chinese."

"It was a learning curve," Daisy defends herself, and as Mack laughs, once again she feels at home.

* * *

The quinjet, now fully cloaked, lands softly in a field by the Nevada base. The laughter from earlier is gone; Daisy is tense and ready to punch some LMDs into the sun. "Are we pulling their power yet?" she asks Mack, deferring to the leader of the operation.

"Not yet," he says. "Fitz is going to do it remotely once we're inside, so we can maximise on the element of surprise. Once the power is off, they won't be able to communicate using comms, but we haven't found a way to root around it so the lights will go too. Make sure to be on guard at all times – those androids have way better eyes than we do."

Daisy nods, her leg bouncing up and down as she unhooks her seatbelt and stands, reaching for a pistol. "What are we allowed to do to them?"

"LMDs? Go all out," Mack says with a frown. "ICERs only on the people, though. If we can take them into custody, Coulson thinks we might be able to get something out of them."

"Alright." Daisy accepts another gun from Simmons and tucks it into her waistband, exhaling through her mouth. "Let's go."

The team hurries off the plane, heading through a back door revealed to them by Coulson's schematics of the Nevada base. A hush falls over them, of quieted footsteps and raised stakes. "We're in," Mack reports back to Fitz. "I'll tell you when we need to shut the lights off, alright?"

Daisy hears some murmurs of an affirmative and the group moves as one, weapons raised. "Everyone's comm units on?" May asks, and there is some general agreement. "Good. Because by the looks of this hallway, we're going to need to split soon." She nods up ahead and Daisy's eyes flicker to a split, lingering on the two paths.

"May, I'll go with you," Daisy says, thinking aloud. "Simmons can come. Mack, do you want to take YoYo and Piper? Whoever encounters anyone first can tell Fitz –"

"I like your plan, tremors," Mack says, "but we've already got company. Fitz!"

And the lights flicker. For a moment Daisy thinks it didn't work, but with a decisive click, all the lights go out and the room is plunged into darkness. Mack surges forward, shooting, as an army of LMDs come out to meet them. They'll have an advantage for perhaps ten seconds, but soon the SHIELD agents will be completely on their own.

"Come on!" Daisy yells. "Come on, if we take them down we can leave faster. The base doesn't need to be compromised –" Her face twists as she fires off a few rounds, leaving the androids with some gruesome looking holes, "- we just need to get in and out!"

"I think it's too late for that!" May shouts in return, stomping on the robots' knees and feeling the wires crunch beneath her boots. "We've made quite a first impression. We'll need to move faster."

The two teams exchange a glance, now at the end of the hallway. The carcasses of the LMDs are scattered behind them. "Be safe," says Mack, and turns to leave.

"You heard him," Daisy says, taking a deep breath, and she goes too.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" YoYo has to jog to keep up with Mack's strides, her brow furrowed with worry.

"You saw the layout," Mack replies, his face stony in a way YoYo has come to interpret as concern. "There's two holding cells Robbie could be in. This way we'll hopefully have people in both, if we're going in the right direction."

"We should be," YoYo says, looking reassured. "Unless this place has been renovated since Coulson last updated the floor plan."

"That," Mack says, cracking a smile, "is not even funny." They lapse into comfortable silence, Agent Piper a few metres ahead of them as they walk. The hallway is cramped without the light and Mack resists the urge to grab hold of Elena's hand.

"Hey," Piper says, holding out her arm to stop them from going forward. "Something went wrong here. Take a look."

There is a round room in front of them with another hallway branching off of the other side. It appears this place was once a common room, or a control centre, but no longer. Furniture is strewn everywhere, charred and melted in a way that sends relief flooding through Mack's body. _"Robbie,"_ he breathes. "We're in the right direction. They'll be sending more LMDs soon, which means we need to hurry."

As the three agents take off down the hall, following it with Coulson's map in mind, Daisy's voice crackles through the comm units. "Have you found Robbie?" she sounds out of breath. "May and I just stumbled across this room – like a containment module, but it's empty. There were a load of LMDs guarding it though; we're not sure why."

"We're on our way to him," Mack responds. "We found the room from where he called you. This should be the place he's held."

The door, of course, is locked; Piper grins and fishes a small explosive out of her bag. He accepts it gratefully and the trio stands back, the handle blown off. YoYo, for dramatics, kicks in the door – and there is Robbie Reyes, looking furious, broken glass at his feet. "Hey, Mack."

"Yeah," Mack says with a grin, "we got him."

"We're going into the containment module," May says. "See what's in there."

Daisy's voice comes in overlapping, giddy with excitement. "You found him? He's – is he alright?" Mack can't help but smile at the enthusiasm in her voice.

"Yeah, but he's not alone," he warns, regarding the blonde scientist, who looks horrified to have the SHIELD agents stumble in. "I'm pretty sure the way out is going to be ugly."

"We're inside," May reports, static buzzing through her voice. "Doesn't seem to be anything important–"

This, of course, is when an earthquake storms through the Nevada base and shakes it to the core. It comes out of nowhere, a seismic hurricane, that whirls across the countryside like a stampede. The whole building shifts, crumbling slightly; the ground feels like liquid for those terrifying seconds.

And because Robbie can't seem to catch a _break,_ the floor crumbles beneath his feet with the force of it, plummeting him and Dr Taine somewhere deep underground.

"Well," says May, more annoyed than scared. "Looks like I was wrong."


	10. Robbie V

Robbie knows exactly how screwed up his life is when falling through an earthquake-borne hole in the ground doesn't make the list of top ten weirdest things that have happened to him. Actually, he was almost _expecting_ something to happen, because there was no way Mack was bringing him home that easily. Where Robbie's involved, nothing is ever easy.

At this point he's less terrified and more weary. He could really do with a drink. Which of course isn't happening because of the imminent death threat, but all the same Robbie can still wish.

"Woah!" Mack peers over the edge of the pit where Robbie and Taine stand opposite each other. "What just happened? What the hell is going on?"

"I'm fine," Robbie calls back, his voice dull. "What was that – Daisy? Is she here?" Speaking her name reminds him of how long it's been, just over two full weeks without her. Too damn long.

"She's here," Mack says, his tone tinged with warning and caution as he surveys the hole. So it seems this would end the way it began, with a crater and a whole lot of androids. "But I don't think she did _that."_

Above ground, Daisy's voice comes through the comms crackling with static. "Mack, we have a problem."

"Yeah," says Mack, glancing to where Robbie is stuck. "So do we."

"Listen, that earthquake? It wasn't me," Daisy says urgently, her voice fading in and out. "The other containment module was being used to store that energy Fitz was talking about, the friction. It's ripping through the dimensions and fast; Jemma says we might only have a few hours before they begin to merge."

"Hold up," Mack says in alarm. "You mean –"

"Yeah."

"Shit."

 _"Yeah."_

"This is bigger than us," he mumbles, kneeling by the pit's edge. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Doctor Taine." The scientist seems confused but obliges, trembling in pain. Her leg had slammed the dirt at an odd angle on impact with the ground and she's been struggling to so much as stand. "Doctor Jessica Ta-"

"Yeah, listen, Doctor," Mack calls down to her. "Is there any way you can call off the robots? We're dealing with way more than your grudge over some book right now."

Taine's cheeks are an angry scarlet as she snaps, "If _you're_ being overwhelmed by my forces, that's not my problem."

YoYo, who has been listening impatiently to the conversation, huffs and rolls her eyes. "Listen to him," she encourages sharply. "We have two hours before this dimension collides with hell, and at that point the book will not matter because we will all be dead!"

These, Robbie thinks idly, are exactly the kind of stakes he expected. SHIELD should really think about calming the hell down one of these days.

"Now, do you want to get out of that hole or not?"

"Hey," Robbie calls in mock-offence. "I want out, too."

"Just for that we will save you last," Elena tells him, grinning. "Mack, you have a rope, yes?"

Robbie winces as he cranes up his neck, watching as Mack removes the length from his pack and tosses it down. The hellforce is already travelling through the base, and Robbie isn't sure how well he'll hold up against it. He'll have to tackle one problem at a time, though, starting with getting out, and he shakes off the energy's effects to walk over to the crater's edge.

"Wait." It's Taine. Robbie turns on his heel and faces her, standing cowed in the corner. "I - my leg. I can't walk on it." She fumbles with something in her jacket, shoves a piece of paper at him. The sacrifice pains her more than her loss of mobility. "This is the universal cancel code for the LMDs."

Robbie is quiet as he goes to her and accepts the tiny, crumpled slip. Taine may be power hungry and ruthless, but she's smart, too. She knows she isn't needed for the SHIELD agents to do their jobs. Robbie doesn't dare provoke her further. "I'm not doing this for you, Reyes," she growls abruptly, grasping at the collar of his shirt and yanking him close. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm in this for _my_ life, not yours, and I'm not dying because some of your idiot friends tore the universe apart."

A calm descends over Robbie and he reaches out, securing one arm around her waist and the other underneath Taine's injured leg. The Rider wails insults, judgements, cries of vengeance, but Robbie ignores it. She tries to shove him away but he continues, saying, "I'm bringing you up. If I were you, I'd stay a bit more still."

The climb is excruciating. The hellforce's intensity multiplies exponentially the closer Robbie gets to the top, mounting like cement in his stomach. The Rider screeches in his mind, orders of _kill her, kill her,_ melting into the jagged cacophony outside. For a moment his vision is glorious, empty white, a sight of everything and nothing at all. Every step hurts and Robbie's hands are burning bright red as he collapses over the edge, breath coming in gasps.

"Glad you could make it," Mack says. Robbie shuts his eyes and pushes himself to his hands and knees.

"I think I prefer sitting in the pit."

Mack helps him up as Taine scrambles aside, nursing her leg. Robbie isn't sure who leaned in first but Mack is suddenly hugging him, the other man holding with enough force that Robbie can't breathe. And it feels nice. It feels like home. Robbie hugs back.

"You look like shit," YoYo remarks once they've separated, frowning in concern. She pulls him in close, too, short and tough, but caring.

"Thanks," Robbie says, running a hand over his chin. He hasn't even stopped to _think_ about how he looks. "Feel like it too."

"I'm glad you're okay," YoYo says, about as comfortable discussing feelings as Robbie is. He huffs out a laugh, the buzzing in his skull protesting the movement at all.

"Me too."

"Hey, dipshit," says Piper, giving Robbie a high-five. She's been silent for a while but her eyes are shining as she takes in the sight of him.

For Piper – Robbie's substitute little sister – he manages a grin. "Hey, asshole."

"Guys," Mack says, pushing their attention back to the rather serious matter at hand. "We've got androids incoming, and a lot of them. Please tell me we know how to stop these guys."

"Yeah, I got it," Robbie says, pulling the codes out of his pocket and glancing momentarily to Taine. There is an array of control panels on the wall ahead of him, and the LMDs are fast approaching. She senses his distress and sighs, looking away. Robbie's heart plummets.

"Top left."

The box looks like a calculator and Robbie has to reach to hit the numbers, flattening the worn paper against the wall as he punches in the twenty-digit code. _Come on, come on…_

"This had better be right," Mack grumbles, eyes trained on the door.

Robbie slams the enter key, the motion sending pain shooting through his head as he stumbles backwards. Piper's sigh of relief is enough to tell him that the code worked. He glances back to Taine and nods ever so slightly. "Thank you."

Her glare pierces Robbie's headache. "I'm not doing any of this for _you."_

Mack clears his throat and shoulders his shotgun-axe, glancing around the room once more. "Alright. Now that that's covered, we've gotta move out. Daisy, May, and Simmons are on the opposite side of the building – we've got two hours to find them and come up with a solution for this mess. Let's go."

A blast of hellforce sends spots dancing across Robbie's line of sight and he is sent reeling, breath stolen by pain. "I need a minute," he manages, resting his forearms on a lab table.

"We don't _have_ a minute," Mack counters, then turns around to see Robbie doubled over nearby. His impatience quickly turns to worry as he approaches the other man. "Change of plan. YoYo, take Piper and find the others. Robbie and I will be right behind you."

The women don't look convinced. "I don't know," Piper says. "Will you -"

"I'll be fine," Robbie says through gritted teeth. "I told you, I just need a minute. Now _go."_

YoYo taps into her comm unit on the way out, lips turned down in a concerned frown. "Piper and I are on our way," she reports, her words fading as she travels down the hallway. "Robbie and Mack will be coming soon."

Mack lays a supportive hand on Robbie's side, confusion in the lines of his face. "What the hell is going on?" Mack asks, searching for an injury. "Is it that friction from the barn?"

Another pulse comes through and Robbie topples like a house of cards, exhaustion written across his features. "Yeah," he says, his words a grunt. "But more. And worse –" His gasp ends with a ragged cry as Mack holds him steady, eyes wide.

"Alright. Okay. Are you going to be able to make it over there on your own?" Mack asks, and Robbie looks up at him with such disbelief that Mack rewords the question. "Are you _going_ to be able to make it over there?"

"To the source? Probably not," Robbie admits, his whole body still tensed in an effort not to scream. "This stuff will kill me."

"Will – woah, hold up," Mack says, eyebrows raised at the new development. The one thing fairly certain about Robbie was that he _couldn't_ die, and now that was being challenged too. Mack was one-hundred percent calling bullshit on this. "Will kill _you?_ Even with the Rider and all?"

"'s why he went to you last time," Robbie mumbles, his words trailing off as his head lolls forward. "The Rider does a lot for me, but I'm not invincible."

"Uh-huh," Mack says, pulling Robbie upwards. "And you're definitely not dying on me here, Matchstick." Simmons will know the most, but she's near the source, which means there's either going to be a lot of waiting or a long walk. However the situation turns out, Robbie is going to need to stay upright and conscious for a while longer. "Give me the best case scenario."

Robbie flinches and Mack feels the beginnings of a headache growing in the base of his skull. More of the friction must be leaking through. "This _is_ the best case scenario," he moans, his whole body beginning to shake. "It's not going to get any better."

"What the _hell,"_ Mack sighs, ready to sue the universe. This is some galaxy level bullshit, and he's absolutely done with it. "I need to get you to Simmons. Stay with me, man. Daisy won't be very happy if you're unconscious when she sees you again."

"Da –" The shaking has gotten worse, Robbie's teeth chattering with cold as he twists around weakly. Mack is given pause at the raw fear in Robbie's eyes, wide and vulnerable and _young._ "Daisy." His lips are clumsy around her name, slow and chapped. "She's here."

 _"Yes._ She came to get you." Mack decides the most efficient way to do this is sling his shotgun over his shoulder and straight-up carry Robbie with the other arm. The other man doesn't even have the energy to protest, his brow freezing against Mack's bicep. "Come on."

There is a shuffling from behind them and Dr Taine lurches forward, her blue eyes blazing. "He's right about the energy," she says. "It will kill us all if the tear isn't closed."

"Considering you're a part of the people who created the tear," Mack says, turning around, "I'm not that partial to hearing what you have to say right now."

"We tested it," Taine growls. "Too much exposure and you'll die too."

"You _tested_ it?" Mack repeats, his voice low and deadly. This amount of pain on Robbie's face is something he never wants to see again, and to think that these people would have done this to him on _purpose_ makes something burn in Mack's stomach. "On him?"

"I did," Taine says, her chin raised. "Because we need the book. And we'll do anything to get it back. No matter what happens, this isn't over."

"Man, I hate this job," Mack says, and barely resists shooting her with an ICER on the way out. She'll loathe SHIELD custody for sure, and that gives him a fair bit of satisfaction.

* * *

"Hey, Daisy?" Mack taps into his comms halfway down the hallway, receiving a reply almost instantly in response.

"Yeah? Mack, tell me you have good news."

Mack glances down to where Robbie is still nearly unconscious in his arms and huffs. "Nope," he says drily. "I need Simmons."

Daisy hesitates on the other line, then says, "You're not going to want to hear this, but Simmons got shot by one of the LMDs before they all went down."

"You're _kidding_ me," Mack groans. "Is she conscious?"

"Yeah. Just the arm." There's a pause, and then Daisy's voice is directed elsewhere: "Jemma, I'm not saying that your arm is unimportant, I just – you know what? You can stuff it; we've all been shot before – no I'm sorry! Jemma, come on –"

"Sounds like she's still kicking," Mack remarks, tracing his steps back to the first hallway and walking over mounds of fallen android carcasses. "That's good enough. Simmons, you there?"

"I'm here," Jemma says, a bit peeved. "Although Daisy doesn't think my very legitimate bullet wound counts, apparently."

"I never said that!" Daisy protests, but she's laughing. "Come on, biochem, I thought you were tougher than that."

"Oh, so now I'm weak, is that it?" Jemma returns with humour. "You're only digging yourself deeper here, Agent Johnson. I'm disappointed."

Mack feels the buzz in the back of his skull surge a bit and Robbie's moan is a faint trickle of noise. His voice is weaker than it has ever been as they near the source, but Mack plunges further, faster, more urgent. _I'm sorry, man. I've got to._ "Listen," Mack says, butting through Daisy and Jemma's conversation. "Simmons, can you meet me in that main hall? Robbie isn't doing well and we're going to need your medical skill."

"Woah." All of the laughter has drained from Daisy's voice in an instant. "But Piper and YoYo said –"

"Yeah, I know. Things got a lot worse and pretty quick." Mack turns down the hall and starts jogging when he sees the exit, pushing into the sunlight and towards the quinjet. "I'm taking him to the plane. Simmons –"

"We're coming," Jemma interrupts. "Trust me, we're on our way."

Mack switches channels again, unable to stop his voice from rising in urgency. "Fitz, did you catch all that?"

"Yeah – I've got it, I'm lowering the entrance for you now," Fitz replies, and on cue, the quinjet begins to open up. "It sounds like the same effects of the other place, especially if the quantum energy has been released. I'm not sure if Robbie has much time – we need to get him pretty far away from this place, and fast."

"Aren't you freaking out about Simmons getting shot?" Mack asks, striding up the ramp and into the now-visible plane.

"Oh," says Fitz, pausing. "Yeah, totally. I'm trying to cover it up by talking really fast and pretending I'm not bothered – are you inside yet?"

Fitz comes into view and Mack could cry for relief. "Medbay's over here," Fitz says, his brow furrowed; Mack follows without comment. "This isn't my area of expertise, though. We're going to have to wait for Jemma." Fitz looks over as Mack lies Robbie down on a nearby cot. "I'm sorry."

The following three minutes are some of the most excruciating in Mack's entire life. There are two options: sit and stare or stand and pace. Mack chooses to pace for most of the time, consumed with nervous energy and haunted by that _look_ in Robbie's eyes – the vigilante Ghost Rider, afraid.

But it's more than that. Mack is Robbie's SO; they've come to trust each other in training sessions and time spent on missions. Robbie is a good student and a good friend, so seeing him like this, with his face ashen and skin clammy, is painful.

Mack isn't left to his thoughts for long, though – much to his relief, Daisy comes bounding into the room with purpose in her step. Simmons is behind her, walking with less enthusiasm and holding her arm. Her left arm. Thank _God._

Jemma takes a deep breath. "Alright, first I'm going to need a bandage," she says. "Then I can help Robbie. If the source of the problem is that friction, though, we'll need to close the hatch – thank you, Fitz."

"I've already closed it," Fitz confirms as he hands her the cloth, which Daisy wraps around Simmons arm with a sort of terrifying proficiency. "There's no cure except to get him away from it, as far as I know. And we don't have any time to run blood tests. We still have to shut the bloody tear in the cosmos, for crying out loud."

"One step at a time," Jemma says with a controlled calm, as Daisy sits down next to Mack. "Can we take off, Fitz? Just hover above this place for a few minutes?"

"Not sure how much good it will do, but yes," Fitz replies dubiously, leaving all the same. Daisy, meanwhile, has been staring at Robbie's troubled form with grief pooling in her eyes.

"You alright?" Mack asks softly as Jemma snaps on a pair of gloves, beginning her examination. Daisy nods, then shakes her head, then swallows hard and shrugs. Mack understands the feeling perfectly.

"It reminds me of when you were in the Framework," she whispers. "When YoYo went in and I didn't know if I would be able to –"

"Hey." Mack reaches out, rubs little circles on Daisy's shoulder. "It'll be alright. He's come back from this before, tremors."

"I've wanted to see him again for so _long,"_ she says, hating the way her voice trembles, hating how she's on the verge of tears. "But not like this. Anything but this."

And Mack holds her as Daisy chokes back grief more potent than any bitter pill.

* * *

Two thousand feet in the air, Robbie gasps and jolts upright. Daisy can't help but sob as his eyes open, alert and lucid as she throws her arms around him, a hug tight enough to last a million years. There is no better way to wake up than held by the woman he loved.

A smile darts across Robbie's face as he returns the hug, burying his nose in her hair and taking in the smell of Daisy's shampoo, her perfume and deodorant a sweet and distinct blend of love. He has missed her so much, every single day. "Hey," he murmurs against her cheek, and Daisy pulls back to look at him.

"Hey," she says, sniffling, reaching out to hold his face in her hands. "Took you long enough. Scared the hell out of everyone back there."

Robbie's brow scrunches and he replies, "Yeah, wasn't too fun for me either. Are we… on a quinjet?"

Daisy nods. "Couple thousand feet above the ground. We had to get away from the quantum energy, but we can't stay for long. It's still ripping through the dimensional fabric, according to Fitz. I… really have no idea what that means."

Robbie straightens, his face grim. "That hole Eli made? It's getting bigger," he says, and understanding washes like a bucket of ice water over Daisy's face. "If Fitz says that the hellforce is tearing through the dimensions, we're going to merge soon. That would release all the friction into our world – I don't know what it would do, really, but it wouldn't be good."

"The friction," Daisy echoes. "That could kill you."

"Then I guess we'll have to figure out a way to close it, eh?"

"Are you – oh!" Fitz has walked into the room, clapping his hands at the sight of Robbie awake. "Good, you're up. Simmons wants you both in the main room, we're going over strategy. Apparently. Not like we have one to begin with, bloody hell." He pauses, puts his hands on his hips, and then beckons them forward. "Alright, come on."

Daisy stands and follows Fitz; Robbie is right behind her, catching up and slipping his hand into hers. They enter the quinjet's largest room like that, neither of them having any intention of ever letting go. Daisy doesn't care if they stay like that forever.

"Alright," Simmons says. "Glad that most of us are present and accounted for; Agent May, can you and the rest of the girls hear me down there?"

"We can," May confirms. "We're hoping you're a bit more on top of things than we are, Simmons."

"Here's what we know," Jemma continues, avoiding the statement with no small degree of nervousness. "The energy released from the containment module has been leaking into our world for about a year. It is, essentially, particles from that place covered in static energy from ours." Everyone is following along so she continues, swallowing hard. "The particles are attracted to each other, so the more energy comes to our dimension, the more is tempted to follow."

Deep breaths. "Which is where Robbie comes in. He is _literally_ connected to those very particles – he is something from _our_ world that can be inhabited by a creature from the other one. What's important is that _Robbie_ is the one in power, not the Rider, at least most of the time. Fitz and I know why the energy makes you sick: it's because the Rider and that energy are at war. They're the same, so they repel."

The room is suddenly very quiet. Jemma keeps going. "It's like this. If the otherstuff is inside the host from our world – like Robbie _or_ like the quantum friction – those two will repel each other. But if it's reversed…"

Robbie does not look very happy with this development, but speaks up anyway. "If I could gather the particles and Daisy could blast them back into wherever they came from, I think that the fire could excite the stuff in the space-time fabric and merge it back together." All eyes shift to him and he glances down, uncomfortable. "It would probably be more willing to bond with the walls of hell if I burn off all the friction from here first, right? Return it to normal."

Another pause. "Come on, guys, my uncle had a PhD. I picked up some of this stuff. Osmosis."

"That's not –"

"It's a joke, Simmons."

"Oh." She lets out a shaky breath, gives him a tight smile. "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed."

"It's okay. We all are."

Daisy glances over and sees Robbie smile back, his voice soothing and low. Simmons relaxes and nods, squaring her shoulders and returning to her doctor mode. Daisy can't help the pride that shows on her face, of Robbie working his magic with a smile and a kind word. She loves him _so_ much, every single part. Robbie Reyes has come so far.

"I think," Simmons says, clearing her throat, "that should work, in theory. If you transform into the Ghost Rider before we touch down, the energy shouldn't repel him again. But if this fails, Robbie, Mack said –"

"I know the risks," Robbie interrupts, squeezing Daisy's hand hard. "I'm in."

Jemma looks to Daisy with eyes just shy of pleading, and the Inhuman nods firmly, steeling her nerve. "Me too."

* * *

Robbie kisses Daisy sweetly before the quinjet descends, his eyes reddened with flame as the Ghost Rider rips its way out of his skin. The thing is passive, quiet, and somehow it still _feels_ like Robbie; it lacks the alien stillness of pure vengeance and no feeling. Daisy watches the patterns of fire flicker in mesmerising uncertainty, living and breathing but not quite alive.

The quinjet touches down. As the hatch opens up, May and YoYo and Piper stand outside, all armed and ready. "So we're doing this?" May asks, not looking too thrilled.

"Looks like it." Daisy and May exchange a look before the older agent pulls her close, a tight hug Daisy didn't expect.

"Be safe out there," May whispers, and Daisy swears she's on the verge of tears.

"Sure, Mom," Daisy replies with a wry smile, and May swats her arm.

"I'm not that old!" May returns to the rest of the team in a huff and Daisy sticks out her tongue, grinning, because an annoyed Melinda May is always better than a crying one. Daisy doesn't really know what she'd do if May cried. It would be like… watching your mother break down. Maybe the 'mom' comment really was accurate.

Daisy banishes the thought and turns to the Rider, mustering a bravery in her voice she doesn't feel. "Are you ready?" she asks, receiving only a nod in response. Robbie's eyes are gone, and Daisy feels a pang in her chest. He is so close to her and yet nowhere to be found at all. "Then let's go."

The two of them walk back into the building side by side, the Rider's glow blazing hotter the farther they travel. Daisy follows the route wordlessly back to the source, manoeuvring around android bodies and through hallways. The Rider is spewing fire now, fingers sparking. Unlike Robbie, the nearness to the source seems to invigorate it and feed the thing's power. It is borne of hell, and thrives off of the matter. Daisy nearly has to jog to keep up.

The containment module had shattered when the earthquake ran through the clearing, and the Rider is suddenly bathed fully in flame. Daisy takes a step back in alarm, her heart pounding as the skull turns to face her. For a moment she swears she sees Robbie in there, smiling.

The spirit of vengeance holds out a burning hand. Daisy barely hesitates before she takes it, and is plunged into darkness.

The contact transports her somewhere between worlds, where fraying strings of light have somehow become visible against a black background. Daisy can't stifle her gasp at the sight before her, tendrils of pure energy drifting in and out of the rift. Instinctively she knows that this is the barrier they must close, and the Rider's voice echoes in her head.

 _It was very brave of Roberto to do this,_ it tells her, voice like stone. _It was also very foolish._

"Don't play with me," Daisy says, proud of the steadiness in her words. "We need each other to close this gate so I can bring Robbie home."

 _You have to know,_ the Rider says, and there is something kind in its tone, _that you may not be able to take him back._

Daisy's breath stutters but she raises her chin and pushes their joined hands upwards. "Robbie knows the risks," she says. "And I wouldn't take his choice away from him. Never."

 _Very well,_ says the Rider, and the heat begins to build.

Daisy is jolted back into the real world, twisting as she stares at the Ghost Rider. It is an odd sight – the jacket is gone, and the plain grey tee shouldn't be nearly as intimidating. Somehow Robbie packs the same physical _power_ while wearing clothes that are dull and foreign, hardly belonging to him at all. Daisy can see bones burning from under Robbie's skin, rippling back and forth between man and spirit.

As the Ghost Rider turns molten with the power of two dimensions, Daisy is not afraid. She is at peace. She is confident. She knows what she has to do.

Daisy's quake sends waves along the boundary between the two worlds, the molecules bouncing and slamming together with newfound energy. Her vision goes double and she can _see,_ the friction absorbed once again into the boundary where it belongs. Those particles are a perfectly made puzzle, slipping amongst their peers as though nothing changed at all.

The new bridge is still red, like cooling metal. All the energy rushes from Daisy's pores at once, leaving her exhausted and dizzy. They did it. The two of them and their impulsive, wild plan - _they did it._

 _Robbie._

Daisy wills herself to see the world again and blinks hard, waking in the destruction of the once-SHIELD base. Robbie is sprawled on the floor nearby and he is _breathing,_ Daisy could cry with relief because despite the odd angles of his arms he is _breathing,_ he is breathing and he is _alive._ They did it, they made it, and they are so damn alive.

Crawling over shards of glass, Daisy shakes his shoulder and feels him start in her arms, that little gasp of relief and surprise and _life,_ all in one place. They are so damn alive. "You keep passing out on me," she whispers, helping Robbie up. He gives her a smile that melts her heart and shrugs a shoulder, carefree.

"I guess it's been that kind of a day."

They hug for real this time, one that is cut short by May's voice on the comms. "We just saw the explosion – is everything alright down there?"

It's Robbie who answers, tapping on the new unit with which Fitz equipped him. "Yeah, Melinda. We made it."

 _'Melinda?'_ Daisy mouths, trying not to grin.

 _'Yeah, we're friends,'_ Robbie mouths back, reaching out for her hand again as May's response is announced by static.

"Good." There's a short pause, and May's words are soft. "Then come on home."

* * *

The plane ride back to base is quiet. Daisy spends it on the main room's couch with Robbie, her hands playing with the curls that have grown out over the past two weeks. He is almost asleep in her arms, drowsy and innocent. They look like any pair of young adults with their whole lives ahead of them.

Melinda May is watching by the door, her eyes fond. Those two remind her of a couple agents she once knew, one of whom is back at the base doing _paperwork_ alone in an office. Those two remind her of the team she has come to love, more than the work she signed up for.

"After this, I need a drink," May hears Robbie say, his chest rumbling with laughter. Daisy's response is tinged with the same amusement.

"Oh? What sort?"

"Anything except tequila," he mumbles, and Daisy laughs aloud for the first time that week.

If May takes a picture or two, no one will know. And if May gifts Robbie and Daisy a bottle of Haig the next week and makes them promise not to share it with any androids, well, that's just between the three of them.

 _FIN._

* * *

decided to post the rest of the fic today. hope you enjoyed :)

-zo.


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